Government To Assess Erosion Sites, Advises Residents To Relocate

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has advised
residents of some parts of the area where suspected landslide is seriously eroding buildings at Umuchime, Amuzukwu-Ibeku in Umuahia North Local Government Area to as a matter of urgency relocate from the area to avert possible disaster while the government does a comprehensive assessment of the situation.

Governor Ikpeazu who spoke through the Commissioner for Environment, Dr Solomon Ogunji who visited the area to see things for himself. Dr Ogunji disclosed that he has directed the Engineers from the Department of Flood & Erosion Control in the Ministry to do an all-round assessment on the incident. He assured that soonest, Ministry of Environment would make a categorical and professional statement about what has happened and what the government plans to do about it. “In the interim, I would advise our people and people from this place to relocate, because since it happens when it is not raining, it can happen in the night.” He stated.

The Commissioner who described the incident as an unfortunate natural disaster, credited it to climate change “I thought that this landslide has been the result of flow of water or flood, but the description I got from those living in the area, they say it happens with noise, eruption with water and smoke, then it is something that can be described to be a landslide, in the neighbourhood of an earthquake.”

It could be recalled that residents of the area had called on government at all levels to rescue them from the suspected landslide ravaging the environment which has not only caused loss of property and kept them in perpetual fear but nearly took lives of a nursing mother and her child.