GULLY erosion in South Eastern Nigeria has continued to pose a
challenge to geoscientists and other environmental scientists, as the
Anambra State Commissioner for Environment Beautification and Ecology,
Dr Romanus Ejikeme, said he has submitted a list of 62 erosion sites
that will cost the Anambra State government more than N17 billion to the
Federal authorities.
He went ahead to state that the 62 sites were ‘the critical ones’.
Other non-critical ones include “550 very active erosion sites and 1,
000 erosion sites”. The commissioner said, “Last year, we did not
receive any grant for ecological problem, what we did was that we used
our internally generated revenue and part of the federation account to
solve the problems.”
The problem of erosion has become a menace in Anambra State and the
entire South East region, but it can be controlled and managed to the
extent that erosion sites will no longer force people to abandon their
homes and farm lands. Worthy of mention here for all who are genuinely
concerned with the menace of erosion in the South Eastern Nigeria is
that the threat posed by the ‘non-critical’ 550 very active and 1,000
erosion sites identified by the commissioner, far exceeds the present 62
critical sites that attention is being focused on. In the next 15 to 20
years, these so called ‘non-critical’ sites will have ravaged human
settlements and agricultural lands, thereby seriously hampering economic
and social aspects of human existence in South Eastern Nigeria.
The erosion threat in South Eastern Nigeria is real and not a
fiction. According to the commissioner, “I’ve been to at least 10
erosion sites throughout the region (including the Nanka, Amaokpala,
Aguly Nnobi, Njaba areas) in the course of carrying out a scientific
research on the relationship between Nanaka sandstone and erosion in
Anambra basin and I never, for once, felt such forces. Maybe because I
was searching for solutions and not seeking cheap political relevance in
the midst of negligence from town unions, local and state
governments.
“The question is, why have we failed to effectively control this
erosion menace that had been observed since the early 40s? Why have
successive governments, at all levels, failed to give the issue the
attention it deserves?
I think it all has to do with the same old endemic disease the whole
country has been caught up with. The sickness of waiting until
infrastructures dilapidate beyond manageable levels before we then start
seeking intervention, quoting huge contract sums and playing the blame
game. The same old vicious circle has been played out over and over
again in South Eastern Nigeria – waiting for grants from the ecological
fund of the federal government”.
The commissioner is eagerly awaiting the passage of a bill that would
see the emergence of a new agency to manage ecological funds by the
National Assembly. He is hoping that the agency would now come out with
criteria that would determine which state gets ecological fund.
Meanwhile, the problem of soil erosion in South Eastern Nigeria is
one that can easily be managed by concerted effort involving the town
unions, corporate organisations (through Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR)), the academia, local and state governments, as a way of looking
beyond the present rhetoric and failed policies on erosion menace in
South Eastern Nigeria, and focusing on practical measure for effective
control,
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