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Erosion Menace in South Eastern Nigeria: Beyond The Rhetoric

Last week, the Anambra state commissioner for Environment, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna said that he has submitted a list of 62 erosion sites to Abuja that will cost Anambra state government more than N17bn. He went ahead to state that the 62 sites are “the critical ones”. Other non-critical include “550 very active erosion sites and 1, 000 erosion sites”. What prompted this piece was first; the comment by the commissioner that “Last year, we did not receive any grant for ecological problem, what we did was that we used our internally generated revenue and part of the federation account to solve the problem” and second the continued politicization and irresponsible reporting form Ukpaka reports on the issue to the level that they are now analyzing the mystics of some “spiritual forces housed in the gully”.

The problem of erosion menace has not been solved in Anambra state and will not be solved but controlled and managed to the extent that erosion sites will no longer force people to abandon their homes and farm lands. Worthy of mention here for all genuinely concerned with the menace of erosion in South Eastern Nigeria in that the threat posed by the “non-critical” 550 very active and 1,000 erosion site identified by the commissioner far exceeds the present 62 critical sites that attention is being focused on. In the next fifteen to twenty years, these so called “non-critical” sites will develop into erosion monsters affecting human settlement, agricultural lands, thereby seriously hampering economic and social aspects of human existence in South Eastern Nigeria.

I’ve also watched ukpakareports.com in its search for political relevance in Igbo nation constitutes itself into a nuisance. The articles on its so called erosion center has been so inarticulate and bungled up that the latest piece on its “activism” on erosion was on the “spiritual forces” and “supernatural powers” at the gully sites. Whoever is behind those series of write-ups on erosion in South Easter Nigeria should be reminded that the threat is real and not a fiction. I’ve been to more that ten erosion sites throughout the region (including the Nanka, Amaokala, Aguly Nnobi, Njaba) in the course of carrying out a scientific research on the relationship between Nanaka Sandstone and erosion in Anambra Basin, and I never for once felt such forces. Maybe because I was searching for solutions and not seeking cheap political relevance in the midst of negligence from Town Unions, Local and State Governments.

The question is why have we failed to effectively control this erosion menace that has been observed since the early 40s? Why have successive governments at all levels failed to give the issue the attention it deserves?

I think it all has to do with the same old endemic disease the whole country has been caught up with. The sickness of waiting until infrastructures dilapidates beyond manageable level and we then start seeking intervention, quoting huge contract sums and playing the blame game. The same old vicious circle has been played out over and over again in South Eastern Nigeria – waiting for grant from the ecological fund from the federal government. The commissioner is eagerly awaiting the passage of a bill that would see the emergence of a new agency to manage ecological funds by the National Assembly. He is hoping that the agency would now come out with criteria that would determine which state gets ecological fund. Nonsense. Every state is waiting for that easy money from the federal government under whatever guise or classification. Funds that end up not been accounted for.

Meanwhile, the problem of soil erosion in South Easter Nigeria is one that can easily be managed by concerted effort involving the Town Unions, corporate organizations (through Corporate Social Responsibility), the academia, Local and State governments. This comprehensive approach I will outline in a follow up piece- Revenue Generation and Job Creation Through Erosion Control in South Eastern Nigeria. However, as a way of looking beyond the present rhetoric and failed policies on erosion menace in South Eastern Nigeria, and focusing on practical measure for effective control, it will be necessary to outline the root caused and remedies.

Causes

For the benefit of given a scientific insight into the root causes of this erosion menace in South Eastern Nigeria, I will summarize the findings from my MSc research on the sedimentology of Nanka Sandstone with view to understanding its relationship to devastating erosion menace in Anambra Basin. From this study, the factors which led to gullying include the erodibility of the lithologic units and topography of the areas within the Anambra Basin of which Nanka Sandstone plays a critical role.

My findings show that the Nanka Sandstone (one of the lithologic units in the basin) is a friable snandstone that lacks depositional matrix that would have held the particles together. The percentage of mobile cataions is 96-98% which makes is chemically unstable. Thus, what happens in most parts of South Eastern Nigeria is that, when sheet erosion are neglected, fluvial erosion and mass wasting acting singly or in combination washes away the top soil and once Nanka Sandstone is exposed, it disaggregates easily leading to gullying. At this stage, the erosion becomes intractable and so rapid that control measures becomes too expansive and most times overwhelming and thus erosion sites abandoned.

Remedies

Over the years, the people of the areas most affected by this erosion menace have been devising means of controlling it by applying such anti-erosion measures as digging of catchments pits, contour-walling, tree planting etc. these efforts proved to be of little effect and the menace continued unabated. Reasons for failure were among others, inadequacy and unsuitability of methods used and most importantly, the intractability of the problem.

In evaluating the relationship between the chemistry of Nanaka Sandstone to the devastating erosion menace in Anambra Basin, I pointed out that as the result of the nature, grain size, mineralogy and instability of the cations in the sandstone, the most important and effective way of controlling gullying in Anambra Basin is mechanical leveling by bulldozing to level out small and incipient sheet erosion sites as soon as the are notices, proper channeling of run-offs and then applying the preventive measures (Okonkwo C. O., 2002).

Words of Wisdom

It has been said that “If you dispute land ownership empty-handed, the person who has yams will be planting them”. As we dispute over irrelevant issues and politicize the menace of erosion empty handed (while waiting for ecological grants to be misused) flood, armed with yams continued to eat up the heart of South Eastern Nigeria.

Someone has to inform ukpakareports, Anambra state commissioner for environment and all state governments in South Eastern Nigeria that the issues of erosion menace is a serious matter that should be addressed with sincere commitment to practical solutions by critically looking at the real causes and religiously following recommendations of Environmental professionals. Enough of this rhetoric.

churchill.okonkwo@student.american.edu

http://churchillokonkwo.blog.com/