Nigerian environmental disasters caused by non-implementation of budgets

Onwuka Nzeshi, Jude Okwe and Okon Bassey in This Day: The House of Representatives Committee on Environment yesterday blamed the massive flooding and other environmental disasters currently plaguing the country on the failure of the Federal Government to implement budgets and provide basic infrastructure in the environment sector.

The revelation also came on a day the Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Ewa, warned that the impact of flooding across the country was a wake-up call that climate change could render developmental efforts of the nation useless. Also, about 79,000 people in Cross River State have been rendered homeless due to the impact of the flood in the state.

But, Chairman of the House Committee on Environment, Hon. Uche Ekwunife, disclosed this Wednesday at a meeting with officials of the Federal Ministry of Environment. She said 22 states have been submerged in a massive flood with attendant loss of lives and properties.

She acknowledged that while climate change could be blamed for the unprecedented environmental crisis, the extent of the destruction would have been mitigated if the country had implemented at least sixty per cent of its capital budget on environment in the past ten years....

The Niger River delta in Nigeria, shot from the Space Shuttle