Special Correspondent, OKEY MADUFORO, writes on devastating impact of gully erosion on Anambra communities.
In 2001, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) with the name Total Environment of Nigeria (TEN) took a tour of the 177 communities in Anambra State. The tour was a five-day inspection of the gully erosion sites in the state. Its findings indicated that the area has the highest number of erosion sites in the entire South East zone.
It was observed that Anambra has a total of 900 active erosion sites in a shocking arrangement that ran the state like a ring.
The ecologically-devastated areas of the state took off from the uncompleted new Government House, Awka, bestriding the building and the state judiciary complex, linking with the Abagana gully erosion in Njikoka Local Government Area.
It, however, made a detour at Nimo Town in Anambra Council Area, took a leap across Neni Town to Agulu community in the same Anaocha Local Government Area.
The gully also took a diagonal flow linking the great and breath-taking Nanka gully erosion in Orumba North LG while the other flank of the Anaocha gully erosion headed towards Idemili North and Idemili South LGAs producing victims like Ideani, Abatete, Oba, Alor, Uke, Nkpor and Nnobi erosion sites.
Similarly, the Orumba North and South council areas’ erosion also affects the towns in Aguata in what till date is addressed as the old Aguata gully erosion.
Towns such as Ndiowu, Amaokpala, Oko, Ndikerionwu, Ekwulobia, Ifite, Ikenga Akpo, Isuofia, Uga, Umuchu, Achina, Igbo Ukwu, Umunze, Owerrezukala, Ogbaru, Awgbu, Ajali and Umuchukwu terminating in Isuochi town in Abia State have remained victims of the disaster.
Successive administrations in Anambra have identified gully erosion as the sick baby of the state, hence funds are annually appropriated to tackle the menace in the area.
A case study is the Umuchiana gully erosion that at some point was described as the Anambra tsunami, between 2009 and 2010, rendered some 1,642 persons homeless, with about 825 buildings destroyed.
At a time, the Federal Ministry of Environment released the sum of N1 billion to check the menace.
Though the gully appears to be non-active at the moment, there are apprehensions that it may launch fresh onslaught on the people of Umuchiana town in Ekwulobia community. Even the Ekwulobia Prison is not spared the scourge.
The gully recently came alive when the already forgotten Omaba Phase II gully erosion situated between Onitsha and Nkpor towns, ate into one lane out of the dual-carriage Onitsha/Nkpor overhead bridge.
On inspection, it was discovered that the Omaba Phase II erosion had as a result of this year’s rain fall, eaten deep into the Enugu-Awka-Onitsha expressway.
This ugly development affected vehicular and commercial activities negatively.
In a bid to arrest the menace, the state government released N5 billion for the project.
According to Governor Willie Obiano, while on a visit to the site, the aim is to ensure that road-users do not fall victim to the death trap at Nkpor/Onitsha Road.
To this end, Obiano urged the federal government to declare a state of emergency on gully erosions in Anambra. The governor, while receiving the World Bank Team led by Dr. Amos Abu, remarked that the state had a landmass of 2,855 square kilometres out of which almost a quarter was badly affected by gully erosion.
He said there were about 950 active and rampaging sites, lamenting that it would be a disaster in the next five years in the state if nothing was urgently done to support the state in checking the menace.
The governor also called for a special United Nations (UN) intervention that would effectively bail the state out of the present predicament, which he described as another emerging disaster.
He further appealed to the World Bank to consider Anambra as a special case by increasing the number of sites in its intervention priority list.
Obiano promised that the state would continue to fulfil its counterpart funding obligations, despite the current economic situation.
Abu had informed the governor that the team was in the state to evaluate the progress of work at the gully erosion sites.
Even as the Bretton Woods institution had assured of assisting Anambra in its current crisis, experts insist that the new impetus on ecological disaster in the state requires a strong intervention of the federal government in view of the lean resources of the state. Similarly the non-release of ecological funds to the state has been described as yet another contentious issue that needs to be addressed in order not to allow the affected states get consumed in the dreaded gullies.
Pursuant to this demand, House of Assembly member representing Njikoka, Timothy Ifedioramma, urged the federal government to release ecological funds to the affected states. He also, in a motion co-sponsored by 15 other members, called for immediate intervention on the gully erosion in his constituency.
In the motion, the legislators had argued that the Osili Bridge and sizable portion of the Enu-Agu village, both in Enugu-Ukwu, have been adversely affected by a gully erosion causing untold hardship to the residents of the affected communities and road-users alike.
Stressing that several houses and other valuable properties, including farmlands, are on the verge of being gulped by erosion menace, unless the necessary steps are taken urgently, they informed their colleagues that the erosion site had been converted into a dump site, which poses serious health risk to nearby residents.
The lawmakers thus expressed worry that displacement of persons and regression in development are some of the devastating effects that could be induced by the erosion if not properly controlled.
With these observations, they urged Obiano through the Ministry of Environment to urgently control the erosion menace at the Osili Bridge.
Anambra Government House sources confided in our reporter that the governor was doing everything within his reach in addressing the menace, adding however that given the magnitude of the disaster at hand, not much can be accomplished in arresting the trend without support from the federal government.
