The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has expressed concern over total disobedience to environmental laws in some parts of the territory, which has led to natural disasters in some areas of the nation‘s capital city.
The coordinator of Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, Mr Felix Obuah, made this known at a forum on Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the FCT organised by the FCT Council of Nigerian Institute of Town Planners.
Obuah said that despite regular sensitisation and town meetings with residents and stakeholders, some residents still erect illegal structures on waterways, causing flooding and other avoidable disasters in the territory.
Mr Wasiu Buhari, the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council acting director, represented the coordinator.
Obuah said the present administration was ready to ensure residents adhere to environmental law and make FCT attractive to foreign and domestic investments.
Speaking, a member representing the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Chinedu Obika, called on the National Emergency Management Agency and FCT administration to urgently assist those recently affected by fire disaster in the Karu and Karmo markets.
Obika stressed that the national assembly would carry FCT indigenes in the proposed Review of the FCT Act.
The FCT Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Lami Ayuba, assured that the Forum‘s outcome would assist stakeholders in intervening in the perennial flooding, which was alarming in some parts of the FCT.
According to her, the participants‘ decisions will help fortify the territory against the threats posed by disasters.
Lami Ayuba added that government policy on environmental laws must protect the vulnerable and sustain urban growth.
All the speakers at the forum agreed that the government at all levels must engage Town Planners in developing towns and cities for sustainable growth.