Residents of the Ewet Offot community in the Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, on Thursday, lamented the effect of gully erosion, which had been threatening their homes.
The Tide learnt that the erosion had washed away a large portion of the community’s land on Udo Inwang Street, while the Royalty Gardens and Accommodation, a hospitality facility, remains on danger list.
The palace of the village head, the Cardinal Ekanem Seminary building and 25 other residential buildings are also threatened by the erosion.
Speaking with newsmen, the Village Head of Ewet Offot, Stanley Uwah-Umoh, said the erosion started posing serious threat to the community three years ago with the attendant destruction of houses, farmlands, economic trees and cash crops.
The monarch lamented that the 22-room hospitality complex owned by his family had been rendered useless, adding that services had been temporarily suspended to ensure the safety of lives of prospective guests and workers.
Uwah-Umoh, who lauded the government’s intervention in the past, however, insisted that the efforts had not proved adequate to arrest the threat of erosion; hence the need for immediate intervention before the community was swept away.
He stated: “We earnestly call on the state government to urgently intervene. The hotel, which has been the family’s fortune, has been temporarily closed down and now the palace is in a great danger.
“It will not be nice for the government to wait until more houses cave in and lives are lost before its intervention will come. We have communicated with the government on several occasions and made promises that help will come and we have waited for long.
“Any further delay may be dangerous because during these few days of rainfall, we have seen the portions of the community caving in.”
Blaming the erosion on the flood water channelled from the town into the community, the monarch lamented that the problem, which started three years ago, could be more devastating in the coming years if nothing was done about it.
He added: “At a time, the Udoinwang Street, which provides access to the community right down to the beach, has already been buried halfway into the ravine. But now, you have seen that a large portion of the road is no more.”