The chairman, House of Assembly Committee on Housing and Habitat, Hon Obinna Chidioka, says the landmass in the South-East zone was shrinking due to ecological impact.
Hon Chidioka, who led other members of the committee on a courtesy visit to the Government House, Umuahia on courtesy call, maintained that there was need to dedicate more funds to the zone to tackle environmental issues and stated their readiness to partner the Abia state government.
Chidoka said they were in the state to look at issues prevailing in the environment as part of their mandate.
According to him, while in the state, they will look at one of the sites in Aba where the ecological fund office has worked to ascertain actually that work has been done there.
Responding, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, who drew the attention of the House Committee to the ecological problem besetting the state, pointed out several of the gully erosion menace threatening the state in particular and the South East in general and pleaded with it to assist tackle the problem.
Ikpeazu said that the South East and Abia state have had their fair share of ecological menace and its attendant consequences, noting that that due to the erosion problems, many parts of Abia state including Isuikwuato, Ubakala and others can no longer be assessed.
He was of the view that beyond using the ecological funds to intervene on environmental issues, there was need for proactive measures in managing the environment, maintaining that certain basic and fundamental measures such as the use of sand bags should be the norm, in addition to creating awareness on environmental issues and incorporating it as part of the schools’ curriculum.
He attributed indiscriminate sand mining and other man made activities as contributing to erosion menace in the country.
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