Flood control: Environment, water ministries propose N50.3bn to preserve environment

•A flooded part of Miga town in Miga Local Government Area of Jigawa State.

Over N55bn has been expended by the two ministries of Water Resources and Environment to preserve the Nigerian environment since 2019.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that budgetary allocation for the “Preservation of the Environment ” in the last four years has been consistently and lavishly funded in the respective appropriations since 2019.

While the Appropriation captured it as “Preservation of the Environment”, in some cases it further described the provision as Preservation of the Environment – General, in both ministries, maintaining the same code ”2304” or ”230401” while each ministry had its sub-head with a variation.

For instance, the Nigerian Tribune can exclusively report that the Ministry of Water Resources in its description captured the multi-million annual allocation as “Water Pollution Prevention and control,” while it would sometimes make provision for “Erosion and Flood Control”.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Environment consistently captured the provision in its sub-head of “Environmental Preservation” as “Erosion and Flood Control.

While the Headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources focuses on the quality of the water in its control measures, over flood control, the Ministry of Environment, expends more resources on flood and erosion.

While Nigerians battle with the aftermath of the recent flash flood, Both ministries have approached the National Assembly for N50.3bn to tackle the issue of preservation of the environment with major attention to flood and erosion control.

For the 2023 budget proposals being worked upon by the National Assembly, the ministry of environment has proposed for expenditure in the 2023 fiscal year the sum of N48,589,092,635 for the Preservation of the environment.

In her proposal to the National Assembly for the same purpose, the Ministry of Water Resources requested N1,783,058,401. This request has cumulatively put the figure of the 2023 budget proposal for the “preservation of the environment” by both ministries at N50,372,151,036.

The proposed amount of N48.5bn by the Ministry of Environment for the preservation of the environment for the 2023 fiscal year is 50% higher than the extant budget of N24.4bn.

The 2022 flash flood has wreaked havoc on lives and property nationwide challenging humanitarian interventions across 34 states affected by the disaster.

In the last four years, N49.6bn has been cumulatively appropriated for the preservation of the environment by both headquarters of the ministries.

This amount is exclusive of their agencies for the same purpose.

For the Ministry of Environment, appropriations for the preservation of the environment stand at N38,013,001,670.

This amount has been jerked up in the proposal by N5,517,246,034, representing a 13% increase for the proposal to tackle flood and erosion.

The information available to the Tribune Online showed that the Federal Ministry of Water Resources specifically allocated N10m in 2021 for flood and erosion.

While it made no such provision in the extant budget and concerned itself with “Water Pollution Prevention and Control” for the years 2019, and 2020 and in the expiring budget of 2022 it has proposed N200,000 for the 2023 year for ”Erosion and Control.”

It would be recalled that the Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu had told the national assembly correspondent that flood was a natural phenomenon that can not be controlled.

“You cannot stop flooding, it is a natural phenomenon. What is important is that every year, we come out with annual flooding and we have been doing that consistently. We tell Nigerians down to the local government where we feel that a flood will happen. And we tell them what measures to take.

“We have for hundreds of years been deforestation we have degraded the land when the rain comes, they wash sands into the river, and the rivers are silted up and when the runoff comes it is more than the capacity of the river bed, it spills to the bank and flood the area,” Adamu stated

It would be recalled that the federal government has said that the budget for 2019 performed by 86% while the Covid-19 year budget, performed by 83 per cent and the 2021 budget increased its performance by 89%.

On the Focus of the Ministry of Water Resources, “Water Pollution Prevention and Control” for the preservation of the environment, for which it has consistently made appropriations since 2019, Tribune Online can report that over N11.5bn has been appropriated.

In the 11-page budget proposal for the 2023 fiscal year before the committees of the National assembly, on water resources, the Federal Ministry of water resources has proposed N1.9bn for “Water Pollution Preservation and Control

It reads: “23040105 Water Pollution Preservation and Control N1,783,058,401.”

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