Gully erosion evicts 30 families in Calabar

Over 30 families have relocated their homes due
to the devastating effect of gully erosion in their
commnity.


At least 30 families have relocated from their
homes in the Ikot-Uduak area of Calabar, Cross
River State , due to the ravaging effect of gully
erosion in the community, Southern City News
reports.
It was gathered on Sunday that aside the
families, 200 others were considering relocating
as well.
Efioanwan Asibong , the newly elected village
head confirmed this.
Asibong, a princess, said erosion was fast
sending the indigenes of the community out of
their ancestral home.
She said, “We now live in fear because of the
rate at which erosion eats up our houses. Many
have been forced to abandon their houses, while
some have lost property worth millions of naira
to the erosion. We do not know what else to do
than to cry out to our Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade,
to come to our rescue.”
Asibong wondered how the community land that
had no threat of erosion in the past suddenly
became a huge erosion site.
Asibong said:
“What you are looking at started about 12 years
ago during the administration of former Governor
Donald Duke, who tried so much to handle the
situation by constructing a drainage channel,
which helped to reduce the problem.
Unfortunately, the government could not
complete the project. It was stopped midway.
I have also tried to stop people from harvesting
sand from the location, but all my efforts seem
not to be effective, which is why we are also
calling on the Deputy Governor, Prof Ivara Esu,
who has been going round some of these sites to
also visit the one at Ikot Uduak.