Nigerian Senate Promise To Intervene In Anambra Erosion Disaster

That Anambra State is adjudged as the most erosion devastated state in Nigeria, with over three thousand different erosion sites scattered across many communities of the state is an issue that needs urgent federal and international agencies attention.

It is evident that the prone nature of the devastating ecological disaster, if no serious attention is structured toward arresting the awful degradation, the state might in the near future be completely carved out of the country map, due to the gory and virile landscaping carnage, which the erosion disaster is gradually increasing by the day to claim more landed space to its expansion.

 This gave rise to the recent visit of the Nigerian Senate ad hoc committee on roads, which inspected dilapidated road infrastructure and erosion sites in the state.
Addressing journalists at Amansea, boundary between Enugu and Anmabra state, the chairman, senate ad hoc committee on roads, Senator Barnabas Gemade expressed disappointment in the country’s road management and maintenance structure, which he assured that the change agent government of President Muhammadu Buhari would lived up to its expectation in the bid to find a lasting solution to the erosion problem in the south eastern states part of the country.

He said: “ This erosion you are seeing here is not an ordinary ravage, this is what  we called grand canyon, it’s a matter of very! Very!! Serious planning in order to arrest what this erosion is doing here and I think there is need for a big study in the conceded effort in planning to ensure that this is arrested as some points, so that it does not consume the whole environment”.

It is something where a visit of this nature can only spur the technical people in the various agencies of government that is responsible to come here and do a renewed study so that something can be done”.

“The visit of this ad hoc committee is to see things here for themselves and to enable us go and put a report that will really ginger the agencies that is responsibly to action and I believe they will surely do so as soon as possible”. He assured. 

In her world, senator representing Anambra central, senator Uche Ekwunife decried the levy of neglect being experienced by the people of the state, on matters of erosion menace which according to here could have been arrested if concerted efforts had been drawn to save the state and south east from the erosion carnage.

She suggested that future project execution that requires high levy man-power and technological input should henceforth be given to company with proven record and expertise.

 “Every erosion is different per day, as the day goes by, it escalates.

"Nanka erosion site is the worst erosion sites we have in Anambra state, Anambra state has the largest number of erosion sites in the whole world, as the chairman had rightly said, re-scoping and redesigning of the project is simply the answer”.

"She spoke further, “ I was here when I was a member of the House of Representatives  and we found out that re-scoping was wrong, redesigning too was wrong”.

“The erosion site was design in 2001 and the contract was given out in 2007 , so you can imagine what seven years in the life of any erosion site, the matter escalated beyond the capacity of the contractor, and It is at this point I feel very strongly that federal government should give erosion contracts to Julius Berger not those small contractors”.

“ We beg that the state government should look into the issue of the land miners, look at the people living around this vicinities  and be able to enlighten them when it comes to environmental degradation and challenges”.

“Whiteout people been aware of their environment, without knowing what to do, we will continue to have this escalated beyond measures.

She continues, “ Am sure in the  next one year, what we are seeing here will escalate beyond this, if no remedy comes this year.

“I want to urge my colleague, Senator Gemade to take this as a very serious and urgent matter of public importance for senate and the federal government to come to the aide of Anambra state government.

Anambra state government does not have the capacity to handle this, they don’t even have the funding to handle this, it is only federal government that can fund this”.

“The federal government is even owing Anambra state government a lot of money in the interventions they carried out in the past, I believe with continue interaction with my colleagues in the senate, we will continue to push until federal government comes to our rescue”.She said.

Though, other states in south east and south-south states have their own share of the erosion disaster, but could not be compared to the threatening sizes and landscaping monster being experienced in Anambra state.