Anambra must emulate Lagos by reclaiming land from erosion - Soludo

The Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, has said the state must emulate Lagos State by reclaiming its land lost to gully erosion.

According to the governor, Anambra is the erosion capital of the world with over 35% of the South-Eastern state's land space under existential threat due to erosion and other environmental challenges.

He said the problem has persisted for a very long time and was compounded by the soil nature as well as poor drainage planning that makes it difficult for gullies to find a final termination point.

The situation has made flooding and landslides a frequent occurrence in the state but Soludo said his government was prepared to tackle the problem headlong.

He made this known while giving an account of his stewardship at a ceremony organised to mark his one-year anniversary as the governor of Anambra on Saturday, March 25, 2023.

During his submission, Soludo hinted that Anambra needs to follow the example of Lagos State which has the smallest landmass in the country but is successfully reclaiming the Atlantic.

The governor's reference to Lagos may be unconnected with the state's innovative effort which led to the emergence of Eko Atlantic City which is sitting on land reclaimed from erosion and is protected by a coastal revetment colloquially known as the Great Wall of Lagos.

Meanwhile, Soludo said his government will launch the Clean Green and Sustainable Anambra programme in the coming week with the objective of making the state the cleanest and most sustainable in Nigeria in terms of the environment.

Soludo's words: "As I said before, 35% to 40% of Anambra's land space is under existential threat. Anambra is the erosion capital of the world. Did you hear that? Anambra is the erosion capital of the world.

"The nature of our soil and like I said before the nature of the planning, many of the gullies or drainages that are constructed have no final termination point and so we have flooding everywhere and landslides happen to be a major feature of our place.

"Anambra's landmass is second only to Lagos State, but Lagos is expanding by reclaiming the Atlantic, Anambra is shrinking due to erosion but we must do something about it. It's an existential threat and we have begun to battle this.

"I mentioned what we're launching next week. We're launching the Clean Green and Sustainable Anambra and our gain is to make Anambra State ultimately to become the cleanest and most sustainable state in Nigeria in terms of environment."