By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

A deep gully erosion, which is at Ugamuma village, Obosi, Anambra State, is threatening to sunder in two the road that bypasses Union Secondary School (USS), Obosi.

The road, which passes in front of the Anambra State School of Health Technology, Obosi, Anti-Cult Police Station, Obosi, and Union Secondary School, Obosi, leads to the totemic Idemili river and interior of the village.

The age-old yawning gully erosion, which is at the extreme end of the road, is a huge ecological disaster that has eaten up acres of land in the area.

Speaking to this journalist, the principal of Union Secondary School, Obosi, Mrs. Ebele Onugha, expressed the fear that the gully erosion would eat up the houses located near the erosion site, including USS, Obosi, if it is not checked, immediately.

"I am calling on the government to rally to our help and fix that gully erosion ravaging our land, as soon as possible.

"If it not checked, it will swallow houses and public buildings located in the area," Onugha said.

In his own comments, Mr. Stanley Abanofor, a native of Ugamuma village, lamented in a WhatsApp post that the erosion has been destroying people's land for years; and that the ecological disaster has worsened with the onset of rainfall.

Again, he felt apprehensive that as the erosion is advancing, menacingly, towards people's houses and public buildings, it would eat them up in no time.

"Over the years, the destructive erosion has continued to eat deep into the land, threatening school infrastructure, nearby homes, and other buildings.

"What was once a controllable environmental challenge has now grown into a dangerous menace capable of causing irreversible damage if left unchecked," Abanofor said.

And, Mrs. Deborah Okeke, a resident in the area, narrated that well-heeled people, whose houses are in the area, had sunk huge sums of money in the execution of measures to control that erosion menace.

"It is saddening that this erosion problem has continued to destroy our lands in spite of the efforts, which rich people in this area, had made to stop the erosion menace," Okeke said.

Land erosion is an environmental disaster that has affected towns in Anambra state, which resulted in the loss of farmlands, houses, school buildings, markets, and industries.

The landslide at Ugamuma village Obosi, which has cut a swathe through people's land, eating them up to cause depression, needs urgent attention by both the state and federal governments.

•Chiedu Uche Okoye is of the Anambra State Ministry of Information and Value Reformation.

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