NDDC asks communities to monitor projects

Leave a Comment Representative of the Niger Delta Development Commission in Cross River State, Mr. Paul Adah, on Wednesday asked communities to monitor projects, especially those related to drainages and flood channels in order to avert erosion. Adah spoke in Calabar, the state capital, during the unveiling of over 50 projects executed by the commission in Calabar Municipality and Calabar South Local Government Areas of the state. The projects included road construction, drains and channelisation, provision of standard refectory facilities in the Calabar Prisons, solar powered street lights, intervention road works in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, among others. Adah was responding to queries on the shoddy construction of drainages, which is suspected to be the cause of erosion by community leaders. The NDDC commissioner charged the beneficiary communities to act as watchdog of the commission by monitoring the standard of construction work by contractors. He said, “I charge you to be our watchdog, especially when contractors come to site. If the jobs are not well done, report them to us. “NDDC will not be associated with anything linked with erosion for the communities that are experiencing it now. If the quality of drainage is not of standard, do not fail to report it to us so that we correct the flaws.” Speaking earlier, the Chairman of Calabar Municipality LGA, Chief Donatus Etim, said the massive occurrences of gully erosion in communities in the area was linked to shoddy drainage contracts. While commending the commission for the numerous projects currently being unveiled and those still under construction, Etim said one of the greatest threat to communities in the area was massive erosion