By Mandy Tina
Following the environmental degradation, pollution and increased poverty rate in oil-producing areas, host communities have been urged to take ownership of the Host Community Development Trusts (HCDTs).
This call was made during a CSO/Media Town Hall Meeting organized by BudgIT Foundation with support from Oxfam, where community members were sensitized on the importance of the Trust fund and how to access it.
Rivers State Officer, BudgiT Foundation, Eze Eberechi, emphasized the need for every community in the state to access the fund for development.
According to her, most communities in Rivers State are still ignorant or lack the knowledge of how to access the 3% percent earmarked for Host Community Development Trust Fund, stressing that there is need for more sensitization.
“I am happy I go to communities to sensitize them, they now know better, they are no more helpless, their voices are being heard, especially through writing community letter, Freedom of Information (FOI) and the media.
“We encouraged them to be able to integrate with the host community development trust, especially those people that do not know the benefit that accrue from the Petroleum Industrial Act. We enlighten them on what they need to know by empowering them with information and showing them how they can use it.
“Those communities that have issues with funding, leadership problems, we channel them the right way to go about the issue.
“We also sensitized the people on how to assess projects in Rivers State and how to track projects, so they can go back to their various communities to step down the training.
“Some host community share their experiences, A community member whose community has been assessing the trust fund said his community have close to one hundred and fifty million in their account, as well as so many other people that shared their experience.”
She also called for partnership and collaboration from other CSO”s and the media.
“To achieve this, collaboration is very important for the media, CSO”s, organisations, community leaders, so that at the end we can have a societal behavioural change.”
A representative from a host community and Secretary, Advisory Committee Odagwa Etche, Ejiogu Augustine, confirmed that his community has started receiving the 3% HCDT fund, noting they are at the projects budgeting stage.
“Communities should be able to utilize the fund very well. The 3% if the production is high, it amount to substantial amount of money which the community should use for the development of the community such as the health care system, agriculture, sponsoring community people overseas and every other needs of the community.
“My community has received. We are in the process of budgeting to know how much will be appropriated to each of the project we want to do. I’m calling for the community to take ownership and do what they are supposed to do.”
Augustine, however, called for an increase in the fund from 3% to 10% or more, stressing that oil-producing communities bear the brunt of environmental degradation and deserve greater support.
“The government and the IOC’s should do more 3% is not enough we are asking for an increments to ten percent or more. It will help the community because they are the ones bearing the brunt of oil spill, environmental degradation.”
