Residents of Oro Community in Iberenta, Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State, have appealed to government to interven on the devastating menace of gully erosion posing existential threat to them.
The monarch, HRH Eze Dr Stanley Ijenwa, raised the alarm when taking journalists to a recent threatening erosion site in the community, saying that the menace of erosion had made life unbearable for his subjects.
Several buildings, including a popular Pentecostal Church in the community, are being endangered, as a result of the gully erosion that has almost cut off some villages from the community.
Iberenta Ikwuano, a major cocoa and cassava-producing area in Abia State, was said to be also known for plantain and palm oil production.
The traditional ruler said that the menace which had been a great challenge for many decades, had defied communal efforts by his subjects to put it under check.
Ijenwa lamented that the pathway leading to the community’s only source of spring water had been eroded while two villages – Oboro and Nkalunta, as well as Iberenta Community Primary School had almost been cut off.
He equally bemoaned that the deplorable condition of the community’s only access road which according to him,had been a major hinderance to the evacuation of agricultural produce from the agrarian community.
The monarch then urged the Abia State Government as well as the Federal Government to urgently come to the rescue of the community to avoid a pending disaster.
” We have seen hell because of gully erosion, and we can no longer control it. Some Government officials have been here in the past but after visiting us, they never did anything.
” We are begging Gov. Alex Otti and the Federal Government to please save us from this pending disaster. We have a serious ecological challenge that demands urgent intervention”.
One of the stakeholders in the community, Mr Pascal Atuma, described the situation as very disturbing.
Decrying the ripple effects of erosion menace and bad roads on the community, the film actor lamented that public health workers and teachers now reject postings to the community due to bad access roads.
He also noted that the locals including their diaspora kinsmen had sunk in millions of Naira to put the menace under control but without success.
