Going...Going...
Anambra towns at the mercy of erosion
By Jossy Idam (Jidam 14 @Yahoo.com)
Saturday,
November 04, 2006
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•Photo:
Sun News Publishing
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Land is man’s tangible claim to reality in a vast universe.
And anything touching or eroding it is a savage threat to
his existance. Since land is a priced possession, the enemy
must be decisively dealth with or kept at bay.
But the situation is so overwhelming if the menacing monster
is a bad-tempered, sharp toothed gully erosion. Yet this flipside
of nature is not a hopeless condition. It only calls for a
prompt response.
Realising this, two troubled towns in an equally troubled
Anambra State. Ifitedunu and Utuh-all in Anambra state are
wailing for help. The erosion started gradualy unchecked over
the years, and now it is taking its toll on the pitable indigenes
of the towns.
A day after a huge downpour, a farmer in Okpo village, Obi
Dara Obikanonu Ngedo, woke up early to go and check his yam
farm nearby. He hurried to his farm, mended some yam stakes
blown down by storm. As he went about the task, he unknowly
stepped on a portion weakened by erosion and sank.
When he didn’t come home in the night, a search party
was dispatched the next morning. He was later found dead in
a cavernous, deep pit in his farm.
The dead man is the father of Austin I. Obika, a legal practioner
in Lagos and now the president general of Utuh Development
Union, an autonomous community in Nnewi South Local Government
Area of Anambra State. Time has not healed the pain in his
heart for his father’s death. “He was only 56
when he died. Several others in my community have also been
killed by the erosion tearing my town apart. But I still find
it hard to believe that my father died untimely”, he
said.
Every rainy season lenghtens the statistics of those dead
in the town. Fresh in the minds of the people there is the
death of two housewives, Mary Okwumba and Justina Akunulo
Akubuenyi. Report has it that they mistakenly plunged into
a gully and perished.
Damages and consequencies
The erosion menance has almost wiped away Okpo village. Besides
the several lives-mostly women and children claimed by it,
several houses have been washed away and more than 100 families
rendered homeless.
Over the years, some of the gullies created by roaring flood
water are now 50 metres below the soil surface and a yawning
width of about 100 metres stretching over four kilometres
in two parallel parts.
The predominantly farming community have lost acres of farmland,
fishing ponds, rivers and streams. These include Ofara Ohia,
Ofara Igwilo, Isi iyi, Mmiri-Ohia, Ogbanenu, Chekenta and
Ori mputu. The community, in addition, has lost major sources
of its natural water supply.
Deepening doubt
Recently, the incumbent governor of the state, Peter Obi visited
the erosion sites accomopanied by the Federal Minister for
Environment, Mrs. Grace Ogwuche and Anambra State Commissioner
for Environment and Mineral Resources, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna.
But the visit only heightened the sceptisim of the people
of Utuh community. The chairman of Okpo village, Bernard Okechukwu
told Saturday Sun that he and most indigenes of the town were
disenchanted by the constant visit of government functionaries
wihtout corresponding action. “We’re neglected.
They only come to see the place and go home to sleep, without
care or worry. We’re simply deafened by sirens, listening
to words without action”, he said.
In an attempt to get the listening ear of the top echelon
of government, a legal firm, Macpherson Attorneys acting on
behalf of the community on September 12, 2006, sent a save-our-souls
letter to the speaker of House of Representatives, Alhaji
Aminu Masari and implored him to “use your good offices
to provoke national and international attention, interest
and positive response towards finding a lasting solution to
the problems of the erosion ravaged Utuh community”.
Ifitedunu, an ancient community in Dunukofia Local Government
Area, Anambra State, is gradually being washed away also by
erosion. To add to the town’s trouble, is the fact that
the base of three high tension electricity towers have also
been eroded and might come crashing down any time.
The looming danger
A dependable source in Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)
told Saturday Sun that if the tottering power
lines fall, seven states in the federation would be plunged
into darkness. the states which would be affected include,
Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, Imo, Benue and Taraba.
The people of the town are not bothered much about power cut
and not having light, their fear is fixated on the likely
devastating effect the high tension towers will have if they
fall. The mounting fear is that when they fall, they will
raze down the entire town and its environs.
The fear of this looming danger has driven a lot of the indigenes
of the town to run for safety and live as refegees in other
towns. Chief Dulue Okafor, an itinerant businessman told Saturday
Sun he relocated his family because he wouldn’t
want to be taken unawares. “I have children, what if
the high tension fall when I’m not at home? I don’t
want to think about it. That’s why we moved. We shall
stay away until the government repairs everything”,
he said. Arguing further, he reasoned that the high tension
towers and cables can be rebuilt but not human lives.
The real victims
In every human tragedy, children are often the real victims.
While the cables of the threatening high tension towers are
hanging above the town like the sword of Damocles, the villages
in Ifitedunu are also contending with flood. Over the years,
the flood has washed away houses and drowned a number of hapless
children.
There is hardly a downpour in the town without tales of some
school children drowning or carried away by flood. In April-just
at the onset of the rainy season, a four-year-old school girl,
Adaora and three of her school mates were swept away by a
rapid flood water. The tragic incident happened after a midday
heavy downpour.
As the story goes, the children were returning from school
that fateful afternoon. A small wooden bridge linking their
villages was swept away in the torrential downpour earlier
in the day. When they got there, they decided to wade through
the water and get home. Unknown to them, the water was deep
and fast-flowing.
In the evening, Adaora’s family got worried. Her father,
mother and other relations trooped out in search of her. They
went to the school premises, emptiness greeted them. The school
had long closed for the day. On their way, they ran into the
relations of Adaora’s companions. The group dashed in
and out of their neighbours homes in search of the missing
children.
Vital clue
A school bag and a pair of brown sandals belonging to one
of the missing children was later found on the edge of the
gully where the children attempted to wade across. The search
party-now enlarged with sympathisers-jumped into the flooded
gully and literally dredged it in search of the children.
Before midnight, they found more school bags. Their efforts
did not yield much result until the next afternoon when a
farmer found the floating remains of Adaora in the lower course
of the deep flooded gully. The bodies of her mates were later
found closeby.
Wailings and tears
The community wailed, wept and mourned with the families of
the bereaved. The death of Adaora and three of her school
mates became a wake-up call for the community. The elders
decided that urgent steps must be taken to stem the gully
erosion and flood plagueing the town. As an interim measure,
children were banned from going and returning from school
unaccompanied by adults.
The order is strictly being adhered to.
On Friday afternoon, October 6, 2006, Mrs. Tessy Ebo, a teacher
and librarian at Ifitedunu Central School, who was seen taking
three of her children home told Saturday Sun
her ordeal that morning. “When the rain started this
morning, I was worried because I didn’t know the way
to take. I took the powerline but we couldn’t pass because
of the flood. We stopped and stayed in somebody’s house
for over one hour, 30 minutes before the rain stopped a bit.
Now, after school, I have to guide the children home. This
is what we suffer when it rains. We in this town are not only
neglected but rejected”, she said while taking her children
–Chika, Precious and Promise through a narrow, dangerous
trip of a gully.
The genesis
The indegenes of the town trace the gully erosion and flooding
of the town to 2002 when the former governor of the state,
Chief Chinweoke Mbadinuji awarded the reconstruction of the
road to a local contractor.
The president general of the town’s development association,
Mr. Afam Maduagwuna told Saturday Sun that “The contractor
merely heaped sand on the road and blocked water outlet on
the road. Now the rain has washed away the road, houses and
farm lands”.
The 38-year-old politician and businessman was a councillor
in Ifitedunu ward when the shoddy job was carried out. He
recalled that the town took the matter to Governor Chris Ngige.
The governor, according to him, promptly sent the state’s
deputy commissioner for Ecology to asses the problem and report
back to him. But before Governor Ngige could act on the report,
he was removed from office and replaced by Mr. Peter Obi.
Not relenting, the community formally booked an appointment
with the governor and table their problems but the date they
chosed coincides with President Obasanjo’s visit to
the state.
Presidential visit
The people of Ifitedunu are all eyes for President Obasanjo
who, Saturday Sun learnt, is billed to be
in the state this weekend. The Igwe of the town, Chief Emeka
Ilouno, Eze Dunu II of Ifitedunu is elated that the father
of the nation is visiting his state when his domain is facing
a life-threatening erosion, flood and imminent collapse of
three electricity high tension towers. said he: “President
Obasanjo is a compassionate man.
When he hears our cry, he will respond by visiting the sites
and accessing the situation himself. As an engineer, he will
know what to do and the cost implication of the projects”.
If President Obasanjo’s itinerary in the state includes
the visiting of disaster areas, Ifitedunu should feature prominently
on the list. The road now blighted by gully erosion, runs
across the town and links other towns like Abba, Ire in Njikoka
Local Government Area. The erosion and flood menace is already
washing away part of Otuocha Road, the town’s only access
road which was recently reconstructed by Chris Ngige’s
government.
Whenever it rains, water overflows the road and floods houses
there. The Igwe of the town, Chief Ilouno blames it on the
poor vision of the contractor that built the road. “When
they began this job, we told them to construct big drainage
across the sloppy side of the road. We told them because that
portion of the road is the floodgate of the town.
But they didn’t listen. But now they know better”,
the traditional ruler who is also a consultant gynaecologist
said.
Ecological nigtmare
The epicentre of the erosion disaster is Obi Eze village.
Others include Ukpo Mmiri, Akwa, Umuanugo and Igboala villages.
Going by the town’s legend, the villages are named after
the five sons of the town’s founder and great ancestor,
Ifitedunu. Incidentally, Obi Eze is the first son. The Igwe
of Ifitedunu, Chief Ilouno is worried that the land allocated
to the first son, Obi Eze has almost been washed away by flood.
“There are signs that what is seen at Obi Eze is now
rapidly spreading to other parts of the town. Government has
not done anything about it. If it goes unchecked, it means
the entire people of the town will soon become refugees in
other towns”, he lamented.
Starring at the deep crater graudally eroding the foundation
of her house at Obi Eze, an old woman, Mrs. Rose Okafor philosophically
muttered: “This was once a road, cars and motorcycles
used to zip past here, raising red dust. Now we see corpses
of people who drown in the flood and tears of their bereaved
families.”
Like a typical hen mother, Mrs. Okafor jealously guards her
two granddaughters, Ifeoma, 5 and Kosisochukwu, 7. To her,
any day it rains, no school for the children. “I’m
a poor old woman, what strenght do I have to go out in search
of missing children?“ she asked.
Broken promise
The sign post of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency
(FERMA) was months ago mounted at the erosion site at Obi
Eze village. The sign post signified that the government had
plans for the town. But the sign post is no more there. Saturday
Sun learnt that erosion has also washed it away.
To keep hope alive, the stakeholders of the town are frantically
meeting and planning a fund-raiser on a date yet to be made
public. “We want to raise money to compliment government’s
effort. We want them to come and take care of the high tension
towers, give us a master plan of our town, one major drainage
and leave the rest for us”, Igwe Emeka Ilouno revealed.
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