Gully erosion threatens nine villages in Anambra community, as US-based attorney commends Soludo's intervention

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By Madu Obi

The nine villages in Ekwulobia Community in Aguata local government area of Anambra State have seriously been threatened by the gully erosion and but for the intervention of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, the major road linking the town with Oko in Orumba North local government area, would have been cut off.

Governor Soludo engaged two contractors, which are working on Phases one and two of the erosion control project stretching several kilometers.

With recent torrential rainfall, gully erosion in the area has continued to expand, and displacing people from their homes and farmlands, causing many families to migrate to safer communities

A United States based attorney and public health expert, Dr Okwudili Ezeike, who conducted reporters around erosion sites in the community, said however that the menace is beyond what the state state government could handle and called on the federal government, the United Nations agencies and the European Union to come to the aid of the community.

Raising the alarm, Ezeike said that if nothing was done urgently, the entire community might be wiped out soon.

He said: "We have nine villages in Ekwulobia, and each has devastating ecological situation. We are calling on the federal government and other United Nations agencies to come to our aid.

"The scope of this problem is broad and complex and requires more than what the state government can handle. We see the good works of the governor here, and we appreciate it, but we know that this problem is beyond the scope of the state government.

The problem is enormous and we want the federal government to come on site and see the level of devastation we are facing here.

If not for this palliative works the governor is doing, the entire community would have been wiped out this rainy season. This place we are standing was previously the ancestral home of some people, but today, gully erosion has sacked them and taken over.

So, we are calling on the federal government to come and save the old Aguata area, which comprises of Aguata, Orumba North and Orumba South local government areas as further and more complex interventions are required to save our people from this devastation.

While people see this from ecological perspective, I see this from a more broader perspective, like global health security. Local security is also global health.

This is threat to health and public space and it therefore needs detection and treatment. This has to do with climate issues too.

I'm calling on the federal government to liaise with the international community that have the funds and the expertise."

Speaking on intervention works at the site, Assistant Project Manager of AG Vision Construction Company, Imamofo Ken-Wiwa, said it took the intervention of the company, through a contract awarded by the state government to save some areas from being washed off by erosion.

He said that when the state government awarded the contract in January this year, his company almost decided to wait till the end of the rainy season to start work, following the prediction of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET that rains would start early this year.

According to him, if the work had been delayed, most of the houses around the erosion site would have been washed away by now.