Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project
Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project is a World Bank assisted project aimed at addressing the Nigerian gully erosion crisis in Southeastern Nigeria and land degradation in Northern Nigeria on a multi-dimensional scale. This project was born out of the request for assistance made by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to World Bank in 2010. He requested for assistance in tackling severe gully erosion in Southern Nigeria, land degradation in Northern Nigeria and environmental insecurity.Background
The project was approved by the board on May 8, 2012, and commenced operation on September 16, 2013 with the appointment of Amos Abu, Ruth Jane Kennedy-Walker, Grant Milne as team leaders, the federal ministry of environment as the implementing agency and a total project cost of US$650 million and committed amount by World Bank of US$500 million. it is an 8-year project, expected to end on June 30, 2020.
The project commenced full operation in 2013 with seven pilot states namely; Abia, Anambra, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu and Imo State which suffered threats by gully erosion to infrastructure and livelihood. In 2015, the project scaled to meet the environmental needs of twelve more States namely; Delta, Oyo, Sokoto, Gombe, Plateau, Kogi, Kano, Akwa Ibom, Borno, Nasarrawa, Katsina and Niger states.
