Daily Times Nigeria Monday, August 8, 2016
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Editorial Alarming gully erosion in South East
I
f there is any topic that has dominated national discourse in recent times, it is that of gully erosion in the South East geopolitical zone. Indeed, this ravaging force of nature in the zone and other parts of the country is not only alarming but also concentrating minds on how to combat the menace. The formation of gullies has become one of the greatest environmental disasters facing many towns and villages in southeastern Nigeria. The region is fast becoming hazardous for human habitation, even as the governors are demanding the imposition of a state of emergency as a necessary step towards checking the scourge. The sheer magnitude of the problem is not only beyond the capability of the regional authorities to handle, the gullies have sacked towns and villages while forcing thousands of residents to relocate to safer communities. Worst hit among the erosion prone areas are the towns of Nanka and Ekwulobia in Anambra State, where large tracts of land have been destroyed in recent years, even as highways running through them have been ruined by yawning gullies, leading to numerous accidents and deaths. In fact, the menace of gully erosion in the South East has reached an epidemic intensity. However, we are happy that the scale of the problem is eliciting both national and international attention. Only recently, some Senators visited the affected areas and promised to bring Federal Government’s attention to the menace. Before the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the immediate past government of Goodluck Jonathan disclosed that the administration was negotiating with the World Bank to raise $400m special
fund to tackle erosion in the South East. So far, Nigerians are yet to know the status of that fund since the Jonathan administration left office. That should not be so, given that government is a continuum. Aside, the South East, the incidence of gully erosion is rearing its head in places such as Edo, Cross River, Rivers and Kogi states. That is why the authorities must act immediately to halt the spread before the fury extends to other parts of the country. Before then, it is pertinent that the governments and other stakeholders carry out sensitisation campaigns on the causes of gully erosion. It is embarrassing that until now, the authorities have continued to pay scant attention in this regard. It bears repeating that some gullies result from natural cracks in the earth, even as most of are unnatural and can be prevented. Majority of them are traceable to bad management practices such as roads without proper drainage or catchments; unguided farming practices that cause flooding, indiscriminate felling of trees and improper chanelling of floodwater, etc. For long, there have been calls for funding of huge engineering projects to curb erosion menace in the country. In the meantime, we call for immediate control measures that include reduction of surface runoff from impervious surfaces; drainage of surface runoff that would include the construction of interception ponds. Most importantly, the people should be encouraged to plant grasses in open spaces to reduce the amount of bare soils exposed to the erosive force of the rains. In addition, there should be intense forestation in areas more susceptible to gully formation including the planting of indigenous leguminous plants to stave further menace.
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