By Archibong Jeremiah
The Cross River State government has been urged to update its orthophoto map by the state wing of Nigeria Institution of Surveyors, NIS.
This was contained in a communiqué made available to newsmen recently rising from its regional meeting of Eastern Surveyors Forum, ESF held at Pyramid hotel Calabar.
The institution requested the state government to partner with them and other relevant institutions, “Surveyors are synonymous with land, water and air space; government should work with the institution closely to help generate funds from cadastral, engineering jobs, hydrographic, mapping, agriculture, forestry etcetera. Likewise they should engage other professional institutions that are willing to help professionally”.
The communiqué which was signed by Dr. Gertrude Njar and Surveyor Emmanuel Obarafo, the chapter Chairman and Secretary respectively posited that “Land disputes can be easily curbed if surveyors are engaged for proper delineation and survey”.
Going further the Cross River State government is enjoined to upgrade its surveying tools to meet up international standards. “The government should improve on the man power capacity of its surveying units across the Eastern States”.
The institution in the statement further urged the eastern states to encourage the study of surveying as an academic discipline. “As the bedrock of all meaningful development, the Eastern States government should encourage the study of surveying in its tertiary institutions as a field of study because of its vast and pertinent nature”.