No fewer than 23 people have been reported killed and hundreds of others sacked from their homes in the Ibori, Ugbalo, Ewu-Eguare, Idogalo and Oludide communities of Edo Central, Edo State.
Lamenting the devastating effect of erosion to their lives, the people in these communities on Friday called on President Goodluck Jonathan to come to their rescue.
Mike Iyere, a teacher and community head, said that over 10 houses are currently under erosion threat. “Two persons died four days ago from high blood pressure, because their houses will go any moment from now. These old men have no means of building another house. They are farmers. We can’t leave the village any more, we have been cut off,” he said.
Gaz, whose village is in Auchi, in Edo North, said over 500 houses and many people had become victims of the rampaging erosion in the area.
In a response, the state Commissioner for Environment, Clem Agba, said the government was aware of about 110 active gully erosion sites in the state.
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He said, “We have taken inventory of all of these sites. Oshiobugie gully site is the biggest we have in the state. It used to be seven fingers, but with a recent survey of the area, we discovered that new fingers are beginning to develop and that is why we decided to go and see where these fingers came from. We are doing a number of resettlement studies to settle all those who live around these areas.
“Mr. President had approved the Nigeria Erosion Watershed Management Programme, which is for five eastern states such as Cross-River and Edo State. It’s going to be World-Bank funded. The board of directors of the World Bank approved $650m facility, but the issue is that there is an imbroglio between the presidency and the national assembly.
“They have not been able to approve the national borrowing plan and until that plan is approved, none of the seven states can access the fund to begin to deal with the problem of erosion. Hopefully, if the national borrowing plan is approved, we should be able to get about $75 to $100m to begin to address the gully erosion problem.
“It is clearly beyond the capability of the state government. I mentioned that the design has been done; we had a study done by Siraj Consultant and paid for by Setraco Nigeria Limited. The study showed that we need about N40bn to deal with the gully erosion, but when we looked at the report, a substantial part of the gully erosion was not taken care of.”.
Posted: at 8-09-2012 12:08 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac
Na wa o Naija. You will agree with me that Nigeria's been having some wake up calls this year. From Dana air crash to brilliant olympics display.(I'll let some else do the counting). Sorry, Edo people.
Na me dey reign! !! !!!
Posted: at 8-09-2012 01:49 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming