By Anayo Okoli, Vincent Ujumadu, Ugochukwu Alaribe

& Chinonso Alozie

WITH the rains here again, erosion-prone communities in the South East are once again lamenting and crying out for help from governments, as they expressed fear for their safety.

Indeed when it comes to the issue of erosion problem, the South East region comes first, the region has a good share of it. All five states in the zone are affected, but Anambra State is the worst hit.

Whenever the problem of erosion is mentioned in Nigeria, Anambra State comes first. There is hardly any community in the state that does not suffer erosion problems. While most of the upland communities are battling with gully erosion, those in the riverine suffer coastal erosion.

Houses, including individual homes, public infrastructure, and farmlands are often destroyed even as many others are under severe threat by erosion gully, leaving the residents devastated.

Anambra state has over 1000 active erosion sites, some of which have forced the residents of such areas to flee to other areas to take refuge, abandoning their homes.

Recently, a devastating erosion cut off one lane of the busy Onitsha-Owerri expressway at Oba, Idemili South Local Government Area, and since the incident happened, it has been a nightmare for motorists and commuters using the road.

Also not far from the Oba site, there is another landslide at Ozubulu in Ekwusigo Council Area, which developed as a result of gully erosion. The popular Rogeny Games Village and the multi-million naira First Choice Plastics Ltd located in Oba are currently seriously under threat. Also threatened are buildings and several acres of land already mapped out for housing development in the area.

In the erosion-devastated Agulu-Nanka-Oko communities, their leaders have formed guards to prevent sand miners from further depleting the soil, and heavy fines are imposed on those who default.

Worried by the increasing human activities that trigger gully erosion in the state, Governor Chukwuma Soludo recently banned sand mining in the state as it was discovered it is the major cause of gully erosion.

In the governor’s words, the former Vice President of Nigeria, Dr. Alex Ekwueme who hailed from Oko, had an unfinished project that was very dear to his heart, which was how to combat the gully erosion menace in the town and other neighbouring communities.

“The erosion in Oko is such that even if we channel all the resources of the state to fight it, the problem won’t be solved, which is why we need to change our attitudes.

“To show how serious we are, our government has decided to form a task force comprising representatives of the five communities of Oko, Awgbu, Ekwulobia, Nanka, and Amaokpala.

“I will sign an executive order that will empower the task force to impound vehicles used for digging sand and they will be detained for one year because if we don’t act fast, we will risk losing these communities to erosion in the next 50-60 years”, the governor warned.

Also in the Ezimezi area of Amawbia in the state, some roads have been abandoned because gully erosion has cut them off.

A resident of the area, Mr. Chinedum Okere said they have been going through harrowing difficulties.

“We now park our cars in compounds outside our area because we can no longer drive to our street”, he said.