Gully erosion destroys 70% of Anambra land area, says commissioner

Urges NEWMAP, partners to declare state of emergency over menace

Anambra state government has 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.

This was disclosed yesterday in Awka by the state Commissioner for Environment, Engr Felix Odumegwu, at the opening ceremony of the Nigeria Erosion Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP)-Implementation Completion and Result Report Mission (ICRM).

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.

In a remark, Dr. Sanje Srivastava who spoke on behalf of the World Bank, disclosed that institution will commence with the programme called agro-climatic resilience in semi-arid landscapes (ACRESAL), which is a project targeted at saving and preserving the landscape.

While extending their hand of partnership to the Nigerian government, Dr. Srivastava, commended the government of Nigeria for the good job they have done so far which has led to saving of many lives and properties.