Rescuing Abia from Erosion

Several communities in Abia State live in constant fear of ecological disaster, as erosion continues to wreak havoc, disrupting agricultural, social and economic activities. Emmanuel Ugwu examines the ongoing efforts to bring the menace under control

Several communities inAbia State live in constant fear of ecological disaster, as erosion continues to wreak havoc, disrupting agricultural, social and economic activities.

Ikwuano Local Government is among the food baskets of Abia State and rightly so. It is composed of agrarian communities whose inhabitants toil in their farms to produce various food crops such as yams, cassava, plantains, banana, and palm produce. But much of these farm produce hardly get to the urban areas, including the capital city, Umuahia, which is less than 10 kilometres away. This is because Ikwuano communities are erosion prone with dozens of erosion sites dealing devastating blows to houses, farm lands and rural roads, cutting off communities from one another. In fact, the communities constantly live in the fear of being swallowed by the menacing gully erosion. The gullies created by the erosion are so massive and frightening to behold. The dizzy depths of the erosion sites pose big risks to people if they attempt crossing the affected roads on foot or motorcycle as four wheel vehicles are completely ruled out on such erosion devastated roads.

Last year the situation got really bad for the communities connected by the Okwe-Obuohia Road which has one of the worst erosion sites. “The road was so bad that there was no way of passing through,” the Prime Minister of Okwe Ukwu autonomous community, Chief Chikezie Awazie said. “The only possible means was for us to use helicopter but it was not affordable,” he added.

As the situation continued to worsen the prime minister recalled that the people of Obuohia had approached their Okwe neighbouring community to join hands with them and fill the gully site. “But I advised them that it was beyond the capacity of the two communities and their effort would end up in futility,” Awazie recalled.

The most viable option to tackle the erosion menace was for the communities to intensify their appeal for federal intervention. Fortunately for them their distress cry was heard by Hon. Sam Onuigbo, the member representing Ikwuano/Umuahia federal constituency in the House of Representatives. The lawmaker, who is also the Chairman of the House Committee on Climate Change, approached the Ecological Fund Office (EFO) for the intervention of the federal government to save the erosion-prone communities in his constituency. The OkweObuohia erosion site was one of the erosion control projects approved for Abia by the EFO. The other one is the Okpurudara Amachara erosion site at Umuahia South Local Government Area.

The two projects, valued at over N700 million, have already been formally handed over to the contractors and work has been going on since June. At separate ceremonies where the erosion control projects were handed over to the contractors the benefitting communities expressed profound joy that the federal govern-