Perennial erosion has completely wrecked Umunwanwa community, Umahia South, destroying roads, homes, and farmlands and jeopardizing the village’s food security.
Residents are dissatisfied with what remains after erosion has ravaged their community.
Their icy demeanor originates from what they muttered: being videotaped for years about the road with no tangible results.
Nenna Gabriel of TVC News reports that that erosion has plagued the community for decades, and many say it is synonymous with calamity.
The gully is getting closer to residential apartments and eating away at all corners of their roads.
It might be argued that development lacks a community presence.
A massive erosion site looks like an age long destruction. The view only leaves one wondering what becomes of the village if the gully keeps gaping.
Before this disaster, residents used this road to their farms as well as access the neighbouring Obizi in Imo State.
Imo state is presently accessible exclusively through Umunwanwa Community Primary School.
Though the school buildings are dilapidated, enabling erosion to seep in, the community does not want them to be demolished.
Even residences close to the site are on the verge of collapse, which is concerning.
The fear of even coming close to the yawning hole grips anyone who tries to peep as it is really massive.
Residents urge the government to come to their aid.
They say to link the neighbouring Ubakala village is a problem due to the bad state of the road.
As the rainy season sets in, the residents are apprehensive as erosion may wash the remaining part of the land which they use.
More frightening is the vibration from heavy duty vehicles on this particular point, which may cave in easily.
lack of access road also made former Imo river basin development authority, a company which once employed fishermen to fish for commercial purposes leave the community.
And as an agrarian community, farmers now took over what used to be the company’s portion to farm on the lands.
Since the Biafran war ended over 54 years ago, there are relics which have not been remedied. Umunwanwa bridge is one of them.
It is an infrastructure damaged by the war. It connects Abia and Imo state.
Many persons died on this bridge in the course of the war in 1969.
As a result of the damage, the bridge was impassable. It was a death trap until the current administration took it.
One of the goals of the South East Commission law, which was just signed by President Bola Tinubu, is to heal the wounds of the Biafran war while also bringing development to the region.
The road from Achingali, Udo Na Obizi Umunwanwa, to the bridge has been awarded multiple contracts but none have been completed. The locals claim they have stayed in poverty.
The last effort to rebuild the road and bridge began in November 2021 by the former House of Representatives member for Ikwuano Umuahia.
Residents are skeptical that the current contractor is serious about completing the project in record time because it was awarded multiple times and failed.
They are also concerned about the poor pace of construction on the projects. According to them, building of the road began at Ubakala and ended at Umuawole Umunwanwa community elementary school in 2023, completing only about 2 kilometres of the 20-kilometre route.
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