At least 23 persons, including nursing mothers and children have been reportedly killed and hundreds of others displaced from their abodes in the Ibori, Ugbalo, Ewu-Eguare, Idogalo and Oludide communities of Edo Central, Edo State by gully erosion.
Recounting their ordeals on Friday, some of the community leaders viz. Daudu of Oludide Village; head of Ibori, Alhaji Gaz; Asene Iyere and Mallam Mutaro Ibramai of Ewu, said over eight people had so far been washed away by the gully erosion that has taken over the place.
Reacting to the incident, Edo State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Clem Agba, said the government was not oblivious of about 110 active gully erosion sites in the state.
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 Sirajn 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,” he submitted.
