Fear of Gully Erosion Grips Kwara Residents

To avert the loss of lives and property, residents of Olorunsogo Community, Ita Alamu Oju Irin, Ilorin, Kwara State have appealed for urgent intervention of gully erosion that affected residential building Taiwo Niyi reports

“We could no longer sleep when it is raining because of fear that it may affect our building.” This was the lamentation of inhabitants of Olorunsogo Community, Ita Alamu Oju Irin, Ilorin, Ilorin West Local Government area of Kwara State of gully erosion which had seriously affected most of their residential buildings.

A visit by Rulers’ World Magazine correspondent in Ilorin to the community shows massive destruction of the drainage and roads which equally affected residential buildings in the area.

Some of the residents who spoke with our correspondent said they now live in palpable fear as a result of the havoc caused by the gully erosion.

They noted that the diversion of volume of water occasioned by the wrong channelization from Olunlade led to the damages and destruction of roads in the areas and drainages.

In his view, Mr. Ariyo Osatoba explained that the erosion had greatly affected the lean purse of the residents who are mostly retired Civil Servants.

Mr Ariyo stressed that the foundations of most of the buildings in the affected areas are under threat of being washed away which may render the people homeless.

He stated that the community had written a series of letters to the Government since 2020 and followed with a series of reminders.

Ariyo said the development had made government officials from Ministries of Environments and Works to visit the affected spots and made recommendations appropriately.

After the visit, he noted that nothing had been heard from the government quarters appealing for urgent intervention as they could not bear the cost of repairing the concrete drainages.

The development and the damages of the road, Ariyo explained, had damaged their vehicles.

Meanwhile, a copy of the letter written to the government, signed by Elder Balogun Michael and made available to Rulers’ World reads in parts “I wish to forward this letter of complaint as it relates to the diversion of water (erosion) on the completion of the Ajase-Ipo main road by Charvet Construction Company on the 7th of June, 2011 to our Community which has created a gully erosion leading to destruction of properties and collapse of building. 

“I wish to appreciate the effort of the government for their response in 2020 for the construction of the drainage; other drainages were channeled from Olunlade and other areas leading to the overflow of water which is already dangerous for lives and properties more than hitherto in our community. 

 Again,  the construction drainage has since collapsed and the water in an attempt to find a way out channeled itself elsewhere, thereby leading to collapse of fences and threat to buildings along the drainage area such that if not urgently attended to will lead to more destruction of lives and properties in our area.  

We humbly appeal to the government to urgently come to our aid so as to salvage this situation so that it will not cause more havoc to our people.”

“While thanking your Excellency for your quick response, we promised to remain law abiding.

We hereby attached some pictures of the affected areas with this letter.” The letter stated.

It would be recalled that the National Coordinator Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) Mr Salisu Dahiru, had said that over 90 per cent of erosions in Nigeria are caused by poor termination of drains during road construction activities.

The NEWMAP boss said that most civil contractors in Nigeria failed to comply with the regulation that drains from road construction should be properly terminated at natural streams and other lower catchment areas, and not few meters from the roadside.

“A lot of studies, we conducted, indicated that over 90 per cent of the gullies were as a result of poorly terminated drains during road construction activities.

 

“This is coupled with the fact that the soil in the South East, where these gullies are common, is soft, loose and has already lost its vegetation cover.

“So, when heavy rain falls directly on a loose bare soil, the force and volume of the water end up hitting and eroding the soil little by little until it becomes deep and wide gully,’’ Dahiru said.

He added that gully formation and gully development are the most extreme types of land degradation in Nigeria.

The NEWMAP coordinator said that every road design stipulates that drains must be properly terminated.

 

He however blamed ministries of works at the three tiers of government for lack of thorough supervision.

“The responsibility is on the Ministry of Works, not on the contractor, to make sure that contractors carry out road construction projects in accordance with design specification.

“That is why we are putting the responsibility of ensuring that these drains are well terminated on the relevant government agency that is awarding and supervising the project.’’

He, however, said that NEWMAP had embarked on further dialogue with relevant government agencies responsible for supervising road projects in the country, with a view to enhancing the capacities of these institutions.

NEWMAP has invited relevant agencies “to partner with us so that we can have a well-harmonized policy on road construction in Nigeria.

“Once federal, state and local governments agree to implement the harmonized policy, we can now extract some regulations out of the policy, which can be jointly enforced by various layers of government’’.

He said that gully erosion had cut off many communities and led to loss of lives, livelihoods and property, including public infrastructure such as roads, rail lines, water and electricity installations.

“So, restoring this land has been of prime-most importance to us and the community, and the World Bank came to the rescue,’’ Dahiru said.

He said that NEWMAP, whose mandate was to address gully erosion at targeted watersheds, as well as other forms of land degradation, had implemented some intervention projects in over 50 gully erosion sites in 21 states across the country.

“We have tackled those gullies that are at the highest stage of destruction; we stopped them in their tracks using very complex engineering design that fits the nature of the terrain.

“After that, we then stabilized the constructed channels, supported by bio-remediation of tree planting and grassing to restore the soil cover, shield it from direct sunlight and bind it closely,’’ he said.

Dahiru said that the “$400 million eight-year World Bank intervention project” being managed by NEWMAP was aimed at reducing vulnerability to soil erosion in targeted sub watersheds.

According to him, the project has successfully restored some of the gullies.

On NEWMAP’s sustainability after the project, and after World Bank funding ends in 2021, Dahiru said the project should be mainstreamed into the environmental policy agenda of the country.

“We must have an institutional arrangement whereby all the investments that have been made into the project be put together in an agency of government to continue its activities.

“Also, there are specific funding windows such as the Ecological Fund that the project can access with the development agenda of the country.’’

According to him, some states have already institutionalized the project by linking it up directly with their Ecological Fund.

Also speaking, with Rulers World Magazine, another resident,Mrs Victoria Job Dada said she and her family could no longer sleep when it’s raining because of fear that the rain may affect their building.

Mrs Job Dada however appealed to the Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq led administration to assist her and her family with the reconstruction of the drainage.