Ekweremadu Makes Case For Improved Funding Of Environment

Former Deputy Senate President and chairman of Senate Committee on Environment, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has expressed concern that Federal Government has not shown sufficient concern to adequately fund erosion, flooding and desertification issues in the country.

Ekweremadu made the case on Tuesday for improved funding of the environmental sector at the opening of the defense of the budgets of the Federal Ministry of Environment and agencies within the purview of the committee at the National Assembly.

He urged the government to increase the budget of the ministry in order to meet the international standard and tasked the ministry and its agencies to increase more awareness on their achievements, challenges and way forward.
Ekweremadu further warned that environmental issues should not be seen as just solved by donations of palliatives to victims of environmental disasters or challenges as they could reoccur again.

In his remarks, the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abubakar, said the ministry had completed six remediated sites in the Niger Delta, four are in the pipeline while 15 sites are also at advanced stages of completion.
According to the minister, contracts for 36 additional sites had been awarded and had reached different stages of completion while no fewer than 1500 women in different communities bearing the brunt of environmental hazards were being trained in different schemes even as teeming youths had been trained.