By Innocent Anaba

Chairman of Bomadi  Local Government Area of Delta State, Mr.  Dagidi Andaye, has expression worries over the alarming and devastating coastal gully erosion that flattened several buildings.

In Akugbene town in the council, as he called for swift federal, state and interventionist agencies intervention to find a lasting solution to the problem.

Andaye, who addressed newsmen after assessment tour of the eroded areas  along the community waterfront said that the survival of the people living in the community lies in hands of both federal and state governments.

He appealed for urgent intervention noting that if steps were not taken to address the perennial flooding in the affect the community, the situation would worsen and could lead to a catastrophic humanitarian problem.

Sympathising with the people whose houses were flattened, boats washed away and other means of livelihood destroyed, he said he has come to assess the situation and have records of their loss while assuring them of proving relief materials to cushion their pain.

Andaye further stated that the scope of work required to provide a permanent solution to the coastal gully erosion was beyond the council funding, reiterating that it was the federal and state governments direct intervention that could remedy the situation.

According to him, the federal and state governments as well interventionist agencies should partner Bomadi council to solved the pending danger of the coastal erosion facing Akugbene town.

He said: “Over 99 percent of all the communities in Bomadi council are coastal and are faced with similar erosion challenges like that of Akugbene town, requiring  either pilling or heavy concrete shore walls be done as a lasting solution to the menace.”

The Akugbene Town Community Chairman, Mr. Cletus Edougha decried the untold hardship facing families, whose houses were flattened by the coastal gully erosion as he called for relief materials to be provided the affected families.

Edougha noted that the coastal gully erosion affected areas with concrete shore lines, explaining that the river current over the years have impacted on the concrete and eaten beneath it, causing the major erosion experienced today.

He thanked Mr. Nicholas Mutu, the member Representing Bomadi -Patani Federal Constituency for his timely intervention with his deployment of dredgers to sand fill the affected areas. Edougha stated that the sand filling of the erosion sights was a temporary measure as it would not provide a permanent solution.

Mrs. Suogha Gbawei, a business woman from the affected area lamented that her entire means of livelihood had gone in a minute.

“Now, I live in a tent with my children and I am a widow. The erosion has wash away my building and store, I now beg to feed my children.”

Also another victim of the gully erosion, Mrs. Lobia Akpoyibo narrating her harrowing experience said, it was by stroke of luck that she and her children escaped from her collapsing building when the erosion occured.

Mrs. Akpoyibo further said that at her deserted home, the concrete walls have caved in and the walls holding the building would collapse in any serious rain.