17 September 2014, Uyo – The Akwa Ibom State Government has said the delay in the take off of Ibaka Deep Sea Port is due to the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Federal Ministry of Environment.
The state’s Federal Controller of Environment, Dr. Tim Ndoho, said this on Wednesday in Uyo at the eighth Nigerian Dredging Summit and Exhibition.
According to him, the EIA reports are part of the challenges halting the commencement of the projects, which was proposed six years ago by the state governor, Mr. Godswill Akpabio.
Ndoho stated that the deep seaport, as a component of the proposed Ibom Industrial City, is structured to cover three local government areas and required EIA reports to attract funding from investors.
It was learnt that the Ibaka Deep Sea Port had a water-way that had a naturally dredged channel of 15 metres.
The Ibom Industrial City, which Ibaka Deep Sea Port is a component, was proposed in 2008 as an industrial complex designed to have export processing zone, gas processing facilities and refineries.
It was gathered that other components of the city are petrochemical plants, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, hotels, industrial and residential estates, among others.
Ndoho spoke on the topic ‘Environmentally-safe dredging and the critical environmental policies that under gird the development of new deep seaports in Nigeria’.
He said dredging had effects on the physical environment, ecological process, socio-political as well as economic impacts.
He added that environmentally-safe dredging practices be observed from site practitioner perspective, taking into consideration all the variables at the site within approved legal framework.
– The Punch
