Curbing the menace of erosion in Abia

Abia is one of the states that is seriously devastated by gully erosion and the environmental concern has made successive administrations in the state to solicit the assistance of the Federal Government in curbing the ecological menace. The state has always been striving to X-ray the ecological problem to the appropriate authorities at any given […]

Abia is one of the states that is seriously devastated by gully erosion and the environmental concern has made successive administrations in the state to solicit the assistance of the Federal Government in curbing the ecological menace. The state has always been striving to X-ray the ecological problem to the appropriate authorities at any given opportunity.

For instance, Sen. Uche Chukwumerije, legislator representing Abia North Senatorial district, in January led other community leaders in Isuikwuato local government area (LGA) in conducting members of the Senate Committee on Environment round some of the erosion sites in the area. During the visit, the committee members, after inspecting some frightening sites, declared Abia a disaster area that deserved immediate attention.

Prior to the visit, the Abia State Government, through its Ministry of Environment, said that it had forwarded a comprehensive list of the erosion sites in the state to the Federal Government.

The Commissioner for Environment, Chief Charles Ojukwu, said that in 2007, Abia had about 2,000 proven erosion sites, adding, however, the state now has about 2,050 erosion sites, while “more will soon emerge after the rains”.  He said that during the last survey of erosion sites in Abia, the sites were categorised into three groups — menacing, medium and minor sites — in line with the gravity of the erosion in a particular location.

Ojukwu said that Abia would need about N350 billion to fight the erosion menace and protect the shorelines of the state from the effects of climate change. He, however, noted that the Federal Government was currently working on three major erosion sites, including the almost one-kilometre site at Orurulala village in Isuikwuato LGA.

The other two sites, he added, were in Bende and Amachara in Umuahia North LGA. All the same, the Abia State Government has criticised the service delivery of the contractor handling ongoing land-reclamation works at the Orurulala erosion site. The commissioner said that the government had expressed concern over the quality of the construction works at the Oruruala site, noting that the job was substandard. “The contractor did a shoddy job; it’s of a poor quality,” he said, adding: “I want the Federal Government, management of the Ecological Fund or other institutions that awarded the contract to know that the job is not satisfactory.

“Even what the contractor is doing on the site may create some problems in other areas due to the poor quality of the work so far done,’’ he said. Ojukwu stressed that the contractor failed to ascertain why the problem occurred in the first instance, alleging that no soil tests and pre-engineering surveys were carried out to identify the root causes of the ecological problem in the lead-up to the project’s execution. He stated that the contract was shrouded in secrecy, stressing that the beneficiary state was not even aware of it.

He also said that the names of the contractor’s company or those of the consultants were not displayed at the site as required by law. Besides, the commissioner alleged that inferior materials were used on the project. A resident in the area, Onyekachi Nwamara, also decried the quality of work done at the Oruruala site and called on the Federal Government to revoke the contract “because the job done poses some danger to the communities’’.

Nwamara, a worker on the site, said: “I was initially happy that government has remembered us at last but I later thought the job was being executed by the local government authorities because the contractor brought in crude implements like hoes, shovels and one grader to site.’’

He said that the rains that fell in the area has washed away the drainages constructed with stones, while some sand-filled areas had caved in. However, the state government and some observers have accused the management of the Ecological Fund of being discriminatory and selective in the disbursement of funds to needy states.

The observers bemoaned the fact that Abia, which has since been declared a disaster zone by the Senate Committee on Environment, is still grappling with the difficulty of drawing resources from the Fund. They expressed disappointment that the only opportunity Abia had in obtaining Fund’s intervention has been grossly mismanaged.

Dr Ralph Ukoro, a former Chairman of Isuikwuato LGA, stressed that Abia was being marginalised in the disbursement of the ecological funds. Ukoro accused the Federal Government of paying more attention to environmental problems such as desert encroachment and ocean surge in other parts of the country. “We often wonder whether Abia is still part of Nigeria. Why should we continue to suffer from this environmental devastation without getting any succour from the Federal Government?,’’ he queried.

Environmentalists have partly blamed the gully erosion in the area on industrialisation, agricultural activities, construction of houses and illegal excavations which, they note, have disrupted drainages and erosion channels. They say that Abia may soon have problems associated with internally displaced persons, as some communities are almost on the verge of being washed away by erosion, predicting the exodus of the hapless inhabitants of such communities to safer communities.

Ojukwu corroborated the expert’s viewpoint, saying: “I have visited some communities that are seriously affected by the menace of erosion. The residents of such communities may have to be relocated to safer places eventually.’’

The commissioner, however, said that the state government is not indifferent to the plight of such communities.  “It is not that we are unwilling to do something but the resources are not just available.  I don’t know how we can really cope with the situation,’’ he said.  Ukoro, nonetheless, appealed to the federal government to engage competent contractors to handle erosion-control and land-reclamation projects in Abia, reiterating that the execution of the Oruruala project was “crude and shameful’’.

The former local government chief urged government at all levels to address the menace of erosion in Abia and other states in the South-East geopolitical zone so as to save the hapless citizens from the trauma of living with the effects. Ukoro lamented that the zone’s ecological problems has steadily degenerated to a precarious level because of sustained government neglect.

He noted that successive administrations and traditional rulers in Abia had been calling on the country’s ecological management agencies to address the environmental menace and provide succour for the state but to no avail.

Concerned environmentalists have, nonetheless, appealed to the federal and state governments as well as ecological agencies, to make decisive efforts to contain the menace of gully erosion which is steadily destroying the ecosystem in south-eastern parts of the country. (NANFeatures)