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By Maduka Nweke
The menace of gully erosion in Anambra State in recent times has necessitated the call for government actions. Most of the indigenes are not happy that government was keeping quiet while their labours are going down the drain.
According to a stakeholder in Anambra State, Mr. Chukwudile Nwankwo, it is better that federal and state government, should come to the rescue of the people now before a damage of mass destruction befalls the road.
According to Ubaka Nwonwu, immediate past President Oba Patriotic Union Lagos Branch, the Oba Community in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State is appealing to the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Anambra State Government to come to their rescue and salvage the community from the Gully Erosion sites beside Rojenny Tourist Village Oba on the Onitsha-Owerri express road Oba, which has already taken down several buildings and cut off the Onitsha-Owerri Federal road making it impossible for vehicles going to Imo, Abia, Cross River and Rivers State.
Currently a massive erosion on the Oba axis of the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway is threatening property running into billions of naira and unless something urgently is done, the expressway will be widely cut.
The Anambra erosion site which had already cut the Owerri bound carriageway of the Federal Highway and is threatening the second lane, had approached a filling station and a nearby hotel.
Members of the public who feel that the project is beyond what the state purse can carry are calling the Anambra State Government to attract the Federal Ministry of Works to intervene to save the motorists and indigenes of Nigeria around the area. The erosion has barricaded the affected part of the road, thereby transferring all the burden to the second lane and other routes to get to their destinations.
The popular Rojenny Stadium and Games village, with about 30,000 sitting capacity football pitch, is also at the risk of collapse if urgent measures are not taken to arrest the gully erosion menace. Some residents, who spoke to Daily Sun at the weekend, called on the Federal Government to urgently step in and address the challenge before it degenerates to ecological disaster area.
Mr Johny Obinwa, facility consultant at Rojenny Stadium, said over 350 residential buildings, acres of undeveloped land, a filling station and a two-star hotel are all threatened by the gully erosion.
Obinwa said facilities worth millions within Rojenny had been destroyed as result of heavy flash flood from Ichi, Nnobi, Ojoto, and Uruagu-Oba whenever it rained. He said perimeter walls around the stadium, parts of spectators’ stands, tennis, handball courts had collapsed while the tracks had been pulled as a result of being water logged.
Obinwa said: “Our Olympic side swimming pool has overflown, the flood causing this gully erosion flows from Ichi, Nnobi Ojoto and Uruagu-Oba communities in Idemili South Local Government Area. It is also because the gutters and water channels are too small.
“On our part as management, we are doing what we can to mitigate the disaster, but we need a lot of work to do to protect the sporting facilities that are in the Games Village, that is why it is important that Federal and Anambra governments come in.
