By Zika Bobby
The problem of gully erosion in Nigeria has been a long-standing issue and several attempts to check the menace at different times have not yielded the desired results.
This is probably due to lack of proper planning, inadequate or insufficient commitment to provide funding that matches the severity of the problem, or lack of technical depth and experience in handling gully erosion challenges.
This was why the Federal Government came out with the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), which is funded by the World Bank, Special Climate Change Fund, and Global Environment Facility.
NEWMAP’s objective is to reduce soil vulnerability to erosion and the development of sustainable environmental and land management practices in 23 states across the federation.
Anambra, which has the second least land mass in Nigeria, with 4,844 sq. km area, behind Lagos, is fast losing its land available for agricultural and construction purposes to gully erosion. Some of the reasons for this unfortunate erosion menace in Anambra State include impact of climate change, human causal factors like sand mining, improper control of storm water, deliberate deforestation, burning of bushes and inappropriate termination of water channels.
With each passing year, uncontrolled storm water flow threatens lives and property, as gullies become widened and more menacing.
The impacts are mostly in the form of severe flooding and rapid landslides, forming deep ravines, characterised by fatalities, displacement of people, loss of livelihood, damage to critical infrastructures, destruction of farmlands, creating an onset of hunger and disease outbreak, especially in poor communities.
Anambra State governor, Willie Obiano, said: “We have lost and are still losing so much land to erosion. With Lagos expanding in the ocean by coastal reclamation, Anambra may easily be the smallest state today.”
As part of his determination to address the challenge, Obiano, throughout his seven and a half years in office, has embarked on massive rehabilitation of gully erosion corridors in collaborating with state ministries of works, environment and NEWMAP.
NEWMAP’s intervention involves a combination of hard and flexible structures that include civil works and bioremediation complemented with the human factor.
Bioremediation is the use of biological material and biological procedure to remediate or mitigate an environment devastated by gully erosion or, indeed, all types of soil erosion. By integrating real and bioremediation, multipurpose trees, shrubs, and grasses are chosen and carefully planted. Such interventions are laced with proper drainages to take off storm water. This has proven to be very useful because of its ability to address, prevent and reverse land degradation in the long run.
While the civil work deployments put a stop to the deteriorating situation in the targeted gully sites, the livelihood programme freed people from putting additional pressure on the land.
As part of its effort at navigating through the COVID-19 challenges, NEWMAP made use of geospatial and related technology for planning/design, implementation, and supervision of projects.
It deployed the tool of Geographical Information System (GIS) to detect gaps, sources, and direction of flow of streams and rivers in a watershed while impacts were identified by map overlays showing areas affected.
GIS is also used in detecting gully length and point of discharge of water while the 360-degree cameras and technical resources allow project staff to document projects with immersive images to enhance remote supervision.
This has ensured compliance with the COVID-19 pandemic home-based work guidelines and travel restrictions.
For the NEWMAP Task Team leader and World Bank operation specialist, Dr. Joy Agene, “the accomplishment of NEWMAP is a product of collective effort that brings to bear the best of engineering designs and practices.”
“The best of bio-remediation measures, afforestation, community vigilance ownership and participation and a highly mobile, highly motivated project implementation team.
“The visionary leadership and ownership of the state government, all of this came together to provide the transformational results that we are getting in Anambra State,” she said.
She noted that, in line with the objective of its establishment, NEWMAP, which commenced operations in Anambra State in June 2014, has remedied and rehabilitated some gullies with an initial counterpart funding of over N500 million.
“The payment of the counterpart fund was seen as a clear demonstration of commitment and absolute good faith in the project on the part of the state government, which in turn made the World Bank to scale up its activities in Anambra State.
So far, civil work and bioremediation had been carried out in 13 massive erosion sites which affected no fewer than 173,000 inhabitants and their livelihoods.
The projects, some of which had been completed and others at varying stages of work, include St. Thomas Aquinas/Neros Plaza, Awka Erosion Site, measuring 122m length, 18m width and eight metres depth, it has been completed.
There is also the Amachalla-Awka site measuring 50m length, 35m width and 20m depth, it is also 100 per cent completed, and the Heritage/Omagba, Onitsha, measuring 400m length, 25m width and 15m depth, it is at 97 per cent execution stage.
Others with their measurement in length, width and depth are: 100 per cent completed Ekwueme Square/ Federal High Court site, 325m, 20m and 20m; Ugamuma Obosi, 430m, 17.7m and 5m, at 39 per cent stage.
Ikenga-Ogidi site, Enugwu-Ukwu site, Abidi-Umuoji site, Nkpor Flyover site, Nnewichi site, Ojoto site, Ire-Obosi site, Umudunu/Uruokpala and Abagana erosion site.
“In addition to the foregoing, Anambra has secured World Bank support in carrying out all the required studies; as a result, over 20 engineering designs have been made and displayed publicly to allow for input from the communities to ensure the delivery of a fit-for-purpose intervention.”
NEWMAP also implemented the livelihood programme, which was aimed at addressing the immediate needs of project-affected persons by providing livelihood support and grassroots economic empowerment. The essence is to improve the lives of people who live in the shadows of the gullies.
Consequent upon this, about 62 cottage industries, otherwise known as Community Interest Groups (CIGs) in NEWMAP parlance, were created in four of the erosion-ravaged communities. It involved no fewer than 1,255 community members, with 60 per cent of them being women, thereby reducing poverty and improving the wellbeing of community members.
They were trained and empowered in skills like simple bookkeeping, CDD approaches and soil conservation, and equipped with capacities to operate/manage various trades.
These include poultry, fishery, pig farming, metal fabrication, palm oil processing, cassava processing, and snail farming.
There was also ‘climate change’ aspect of NEWMAP which undertook a study on how to mitigate the perennial flooding in Onitsha and its environs, known as the Onitsha Urban Storm Water Management Master Plan.
The study has proposed measures that will ensure effective management of storm water runoff in Onitsha and adjourning towns to mitigate it’s environmental, social and health impacts.”
‘NEWMAP has so far distributed 1,280 low carbon/carbon efficient cooking stoves to some communities, schools and other public institutions in the state.
Project beneficiaries have acclaimed that the “stoves significantly helped to reduce the incidences of tree felling and high carbon emission. Mr. E.I Akabueze, deputy comptroller of corrections Awka Custodial Center Nigeria Prisons Amawbia, agree that the stoves were of great value.
This multi-scale project has provided substantial economic relief to the communities whose ancestral lands and livelihoods are under constant threat of destruction by gully erosion.
NEWMAP’s national project coordinator, Dr. Salisu Dahiru, on his part, said Anambra stands out in terms of achievement because of the governor’s commitment from the inception of the project.
According to Dahiru, Anambra is now a model to other participating states, every state now considers the commitment of extra resources to accelerate engineering design of additional sites.
“The spirit of partnership, the spirit of community mobilization and the spirit of oneness in terms of implementation of the Project and this combine to provide the much-needed success that is already achieved in Anambra,” he said.
Mr Michael Ivenso, the Project Coordinator of NEWMAP in Anambra said the experience gained in the implementation of the project, was a real-life experience for those involved.
Ivenso said NEWMAP, through the support of the state government, had dramatically assisted the people while decrying that untold hardship caused by the devastation especially women and children who live under the shadows of these gullies.
“It has been tremendous. I know the precarious state of our beneficiaries before the intervention and the progress we have made. It gives me great joy.
“It is a life changing experience, the sense of fulfilment is overwhelming, and I experience this every time I am inspecting sites that we have completed.
“I see people whose houses have been saved, like Mrs. Theresa Okoye at Nkpor, Mr. Innocent Obasi at Omagba, Mrs. Florence Anagbogu in Amachalla. I could name them unending.
These are real people whose houses would have been severely affected but for the intervention of NEWMAP. They are delighted people today.
“We are greatly encouraged by the leadership and support of Chief Willie Obiano, who ensures that NEWMAP gets all the counterpart funding needed to succeed,” he said.
One must say that NEWMAP throughout its activities in Anambra State, has succeeded in improving the physical environment and living conditions.
The project has had a wider impact on the affected communities by providing economic livelihoods to the poor and affected people, addressing flooding and poor management of solid wastes, and restoring degraded lands.
NEWMAP’s innovative approach has proved a veritable model for future intervention to ensure the sustainability of our environment.