Fears, tears as erosion ravages South-East states

An erosion site at Amako-Nanka in Anambra.

More than six years after, the people of Umuhu village in the Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State are still wondering whether the strange ‘incident’ that took place in the sleepy community on October 6, 2008 was not a minor earthquake.

On that day, an unprecedented earth tremor resulted in a landslide, spanning an area of about 35.8 square meters in the village, destroying houses and farmlands. Buildings on the path of the landslide literally disintegrated, cash crops and trees were uprooted as villagers fled in all directions, fearing the worst.

Several families were displaced as a result of the loss of their houses, while several others lost farmlands – a very serious matter considering the fact that the villagers are mostly farmers.

It has been several years since 2008 but the scars left behind by the earth tremor has, rather than heal, indeed widened since that unfortunate incident, as a recent visit to the community by our correspondent revealed.

The crater left behind by the October 6, 2008 landslide has widened considerably, swallowing up even more farmlands, and ominously nudging at the nearest houses, whose owners would have thought that they have escaped the destruction unleashed on the day of the disaster.

Our correspondent observed that, besides the houses and farmlands that were destroyed by the earth tremor, the disaster also claimed some major roads – a deep, impassable gully was left in the middle of one of the major access roads in the community.

Some schools and churches, which were within the area initially affected by the tremor, had since closed down, or moved to new locations.

Chief Stephen Onuoha, the traditional prime minister of Awgu town, is an affable elder citizen, but one could not miss the deep sadness and concern on his face as he narrated the travails of the people of Umuhu village during an encounter with our correspondent.

Pa Onuoha’s house is very close to the location of the earth tremor, and as the crater continues to expand, he has every reason to worry.

But his biggest concern is a fear that the ‘earthquake’ will happen again.

He remembers what happened on October 6, 2008, when the tremor occurred.

Going down memory lane, the septuagenarian said, “On that day (October 6, 2008), I came out to urinate around 1:00am. Suddenly I heard a very loud noise which lasted for more than three minutes.

Landslide at Umuhu, Awgu LGA, Enugu State

“The noise was so loud that it shook all the houses around – out of fear people were shouting all over the community. We were all frightened because we could not explain the cause of the noise.

“In the morning I came out to check what happened and as I approached the location where the noise came from I noticed that the soil was turning, churning furiously – the crops were buried under the upturned soil and trees were uprooted. There was a buzzing sound, as if a bulldozer was working underneath the ground.

“Further down the area we noticed that several buildings were destroyed – so many people were displaced.”

Pa Onuoha expressed regrets that the government has not done anything meaningful to alleviate the suffering of the community.

He is particularly pained that the government has consistently ignored requests for a geological survey of the village, to ascertain whether the area is safe for human habitation.

“Till now government has not done anything and the crater continues to expand. We asked the government to send geologists to come and see if this thing would happen again in this area, so that we would know if we should continue to live in this environment but nothing has been done in that direction,” the community leader said, adding that although no life was lost in the October 6, 2008 earth tremor, the situation might be different should the incident re-occur in future.

According to him, the only assistance that came to the community was from the National Emergency Management Agency, which donated bags of rice.

Onuoha added that NEMA informed the community that it needs the sum of N5m from the Enugu State Government to carry out the much needed geological tests.

Representatives of the community eventually met Governor Sullivan Chime at the Enugu State Government House on September 15, 2014, and according to a petition which they presented at the parley, a copy of which was shown to our correspondent, they complained of “severe hunger and hardship”, as well as fear of the unknown.

Parts of the petition, signed by the leaders of the community, read, “The worrisome fact that the epicentre of and scope of the tremor continues to expand on a daily basis has increased our fear as it fills us with trepidation. The Federal Government, through NEMA, rendered a scanty assistance while maintaining that the state government should support her effort by contributing the sum of N5m so as to assist her in carrying out a proposed geophysical survey of the area.

“According to NEMA, the community is prone to repeated tremors although more survey and studies are still needed. We humbly and earnestly crave your assistance so that our people will not go into extinction.”

Pa Onuoha expressed regrets that the community’s cries for help had so far been ignored, despite promises made by the government.

Shaking his head in sadness, he added, “Maybe it’s because we don’t have anybody in government that we are left to suffer.”

Similar sad tales abound in several communities in the South East, where ecological problems have posed seemingly insurmountable challenges to the state governments in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, despite the famous Ecological Fund, running into billions of naira, which the Federal Government set aside to solve the problem.

Recent studies suggest that the degradation of farmlands, as a result of ecological disasters in the South East, has caused yield reductions of about 30 per cent to 90 per cent, and up to five per cent drag on agricultural gross domestic products.

Also, gullies and areas exposed to erosion nearly quadrupled, from about 161km (0.21 per cent) in 1976 to about 582km (0.76 per cent) in 2006.

Reports suggest that Anambra, Abia, Imo, Enugu and Ebonyi states have an estimated total of 3,000 gullies, which are rapidly expanding with devastating impact on lives and livelihoods. Infrastructure, including roads, highways, houses, waterways, reservoirs and pipeline networks, as well as natural assets like productive farmlands and forests have been lost.

Scores of ecological disaster sites litter several towns and villages in these states, including Awka, Oko, Alor, Agulu, Nanka, Umunze, Ojoto, Achina, Umuchu, Nnewi, Oraukwu, Ogidi, Ekwulobia, Nnobi, Uke, Ideani, Obosi, Abagana, and Igbo-Ukwu in Anambra State; Okigwe, Orlu, Obowo, Okwudor and Mbaise in Imo State.

Others are Uturu, Bende, Nguzu, Ekoli, Ohafia, Uzuakoli and Abiriba in Abia State; Awgu, Udi, Ngwo, Umumba-Ndiuno, Oji River, Achi, Ugwuoba and Nsukka in Enugu State; as well as Afikpo and Uturu in Ebonyi State.

But, unlike the situation in Umuhu village, where the landslide is being attributed to earth tremor, erosion, largely brought about by floods during rainy seasons, is the major cause of the ecological problem.

Erosion in the South East, in most cases, comes along with landslides and gullies, which destroy houses and farmlands in their wake, and make roads impassable.

So many communities have been made inaccessible as a result of gully erosion and landslides.

After severe floods in July 2014, the people of Obinofia Ndiuno, in the Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, had to cry out to all tiers of government to save the community from an imminent ecological disaster. This was after erosion had washed away Nkwo Ezeagu-Obinofia Ndiuno road, which linked the village to other communities.

Also in 2013, several people in Odongbu-Amogbeke and Akponge-Amoju, two communities in Ezimo, in the Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State, were sacked by gully erosion, which destroyed their homes.

The hapless villagers, who also lost their farmlands to the erosion menace, had to seek refuge in neighbouring communities.

Amako-Nanka and Ubahu-Nanka, two neighbouring villages in Anambra State, are examples of countless communities that are under the siege of gully erosion.

A recent visit to the communities revealed that the people are dreading the advent of the rainy season, when huge gullies in the villages, which had claimed several houses and farmlands, are expected to expand, and destroy even more houses and farmlands.

A youth, Chidi Okeke, an okada rider, who took our correspondent to some of the gully erosion sites, said some of the huge gullies have been present in the community for a very long time, although not in their current shapes and sizes.

“They have been growing larger, and as they grow, they swallow houses and farmlands,” Okeke said.

Villagers who thought the gullies were far from their houses or farmlands had watched in shock and fright as the ecological monster slowly approached and subsequently overran them, turning them into refugees overnight.

Okeke said he was not aware of any serious assistance from the government towards combating the scourge.

“If the government had done something about this problem I don’t think the gullies would have grown so large to this current size and even new ones have appeared in other places around here.

“These gullies were not this big when I was a kid but look at how big they are now, and they are still getting bigger,” Okeke argued.

He explained that the campaign against gully erosion in the area is limited to inadequate self-help measures undertaken by the helpless villagers.

He added, “Everybody is on their own. There is nothing much we can do.”

Our correspondent observed some of the self-help measures, mostly in the form of concrete barriers erected by villagers around houses and farmlands as a wedge against the expansion of the gullies.

But from what our correspondent observed, and the testimonies given by some villagers in Amako-Nanka and Ubahu-Nanka communities, the concrete barriers ultimately prove ineffective when the gullies come calling.

Okeke, who noted that the villagers had become skeptical after several years of waiting for promised assistance from the government, admitted that the people of Amako-Nanka and Ubahu-Nanka would welcome any intervention from the government.

Several communities in Imo State have similar issues.

At Umuariam, in the Obowo Local Government Area of the state, our correspondent noted that some communities have been rendered inaccessible by landslide and gully erosion, which have destroyed access roads.

Beyond the destruction of roads, the menace is also driving some communities into the forest, as the gullies continue their relentless expansion, without any hindrance.

Recently, some communities in Ideato North, and Ideato South, were cut off from the rest of the state after gullies literally divided the Orlu-Mgbee-Urualla, Akokwa-Osina federal highway into two.

The tales of woe goes on and on, despite the existence of the Ecological Fund, which was established in 1981 as a pool of funds that would be devoted to funding ecological projects, particularly interventions aimed at addressing ecological disasters. The fund initially constituted one per cent of the Federation Account, but was reviewed upwards to two per cent in 1992.

Many believe that the management of the fund has been far from satisfactory, as discretionary powers given to the executive arm of government had led to its abuse. In recent times, the fund has been deployed for non-ecological projects, to the extent that the federal and state governments have, in the last decade, reportedly spent about N400b meant for addressing ecological problems on election campaigns and the purchase of choice vehicles, among other questionable ventures.

The prevailing belief is that the Ecological Fund is simply a slush fund.

Efforts made by our correspondent to get the various state governments to comment on how the Ecological Fund is being used to address ecological disasters were not successful.

But there is little doubt that the fund has, so far, failed in its primary use – addressing ecological challenges.

Some of the houses affected by erosion in Anambra

Little wonder that the communities that are assailed by gully erosion are feeling so helpless.

The apparent failure of the Ecological Fund must also have informed the establishment of the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), a World Bank-assisted intervention programme.

Although NEWMAP is domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Environment at the federal level, and the state ministry of environment at the state level, the project is directly supervised by the World Bank.

NEWMAP, an eight-year operation, is being implemented in seven states with acute gully erosion – Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Enugu, Cross River and Edo. There are plans to extend the project to other states, nationwide.

Enugu State NEWMAP Communications Specialist, Mr. Benedict Agbo, in an encounter with our correspondent, noted that the state governments in the South East had been battling to combat gully erosion for several years with nothing meaningful to show for their efforts.

He expressed optimism that NEWMAP would be able to make a difference, but while the project is designed to ensure that all interventions meet international standards, the scale of operations might not be large enough.

Among hundreds of gully erosion sites in Enugu State, NEWMAP only earmarked five ‘priority erosion sites’ out of which two sites were approved for site interventions, following the approval of sites engineering designs.

The five priority erosion sites designated by NEWMAP are Udi-Ozalla road erosion site, Udi; Ninth Mile Corner gully erosion site, Ameke-Ngwo; Ajalli Water Works erosion site, Nsude; Agbaja-Ngwo gully erosion site, Okwojo-Ngwo; and Enugwu-Ngwo gully erosion site, Ngwo-Asaa.

The sites at Ninth Mile Corner, Ameke-Ngwo, and Ajalli Water Works, Nsude, were those approved for intervention, which includes possible resettlement.

But these sites are not even the biggest gully erosion sites in Enugu State.

Agbo explained that the sites were to serve as test cases, as NEWMAP start its operations from the smaller sites and scale up to the bigger ones.

Be that as it may, civil works are yet to start at the sites, but Agbo disclosed that documentation had been concluded.