...Gully erosion has eaten up over 70 per cent of the landmass in Anambra – Commissioner
…Anambra has less than three percent of erosion menace under control
Some Parts of the road leading to Anambra state high court is at the risk of been demacated if urgent action are not taking by the state government.
The erosion has badly affected the swimming pool at Ekwueme Square.
Concerned citizens have continued to raised alarm over the gully erosion stating that it is almost cutting off the roads which in no distance time might become worst except Governor Chukwuma Soludo administration intervains.
One of the staff of Anambra state high court who does not want his name to be mentioned told “Angel Network News” that the gully erosion is threatening and if something is not done by the state government, the state high court will be affected. He called on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to as a matter of urgency rescue the situation in other to avert more damages.
Recall that the state Commissioner for Environment Anambra state Engr Felix Odumegwu, at the opening ceremony of the Nigeria Erosion Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP)-Implementation Completion and Result Report Mission (ICRM) expressed concern that gully erosion has eaten up over 70 per cent of the landmass in the state, while also threatening the lives and property of people in the affected areas.
Odumegwu, who described the situation as precarious, further disclosed that the former Commissioner of works in the state, Engr Marcel Ifejiofor puts erosion sites in Anambra state at over 1, 000
He said, “Anambra today is faced with an existential threat from the scourge of erosion; we are the state with the second-highest population density in Nigeria and alongside that, we have the most active number of erosion sites.”
“It has been reported that 70 percent of the land in Anambra state is at risk of gully erosion. This is the precarious state we are in, with less than three percent of our erosion menace under control; we not only ask for more, but wish to charge NEWMAP and her funding partners to declare a state of emergency on Anambra’s erosion menace”.
Odumegwu further lamented that erosion is man-made activity, which weakens soil aggregation and make the soil susceptible to run off velocity as in the case in Anambra state.
According to him, the previous attempt at managing erosion has largely focused on post- erosion management, whereby remedies, in form of engineering work, only take place after erosion has occurred, destroying scarce land, properties or even life, while compounding the environmental difficulties that we are already in.
He, therefore, assured that the present administration led by Prof Charles Soludo is prepared to tackle the menace this time around to forestall the scourge.
“We want to devote more time to pre-erosion management by nipping in the bud erosion before it occurs,” he added.
“We will work with researchers in various institutions of learning here to identify key erosion sites, obtain the erosivity and erodibility index of every location in the state. In this way, we can prioritise tree planting and other erosion control mechanisms in locations with higher probability of erosion.
“Under my ministry, we will work to regulate the reckless endangerment of our environment by illegal sand miners and others whose activities pose danger to our environment.
