The people of Amaewu, Umueze, Amamba Uzuakoli in Bende local government of Abia State now live in panic following a gully erosion site which has defied all solutions after several millions of Naira was expended in tackling it.
Speaking with ABN TV Friday, the member representing Bende South constituency in Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Emmanuel Chinedu Ndubuisi said an indigene of the community living overseas has lost his 2-storey building to the erosion despite making frantic efforts to bring it under control.
The lawmaker also added that the community has consistently made efforts to change the course of the gully site to no avail, leading to the collapse of another 4-bedroom bungalow.
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According to him, he reached out to the NEWMAP who came and gave their expert advise, a step that has been followed but the gully still persists.
While stating that more buildings in the community are under the threat of the erosion, Hon. Ndubuisi hinted that the community has commenced fresh palliative work following advise by NEWMAP team to mitigate the flood impact.
“NEWMAP team advised that the community should do drainage down to the river so that more buildings will not be threatened but I don’t know if the money available to the community now can do that.
“What we want to do now is to use a kind of sandbags to slow down the speed of the flood so that the devastation will reduce, which the engineers told us will reduce the devastation,” he said.
On interventions from lawmakers representing the people at the National Assembly, Hon. Ndubuisi disclosed that the member representing Bende Federal Constituency, Rep. Benjamin Kalu and the Senator representing Abia North, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, are aware of the challenges of the people, adding “only the state government has intervened through NEWMAP”.
He also stated that efforts are ongoing to get other agencies of government for their intervention.
However when contacted, the senator representing Abia North, Orji Uzor Kalu, said that though their job at the red chamber is purely legislative, that he will send people to go and look at the site to enable him see how he can talk to federal authorities to come to the aide of the community.
The senator advised that such issues rests with the state government who receives monthly ecological funds.
Meanwhile, the member representing Bende Federal Constituency, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, said, “I have been there before to inspect the site. I have already presented the matter to the Ecological Fund Office for consideration.”
