The people of Yelanguruza community in Gombe State heaved a sigh of relief after the Federal Government commissioned and handed over erosion control project that linked the community with Gombe metropolis.
Yelanguruza and HayinMisau, suburbs of Gombe, the capital city of Gombe State, boast of high population density but were hitherto cut-off from the metropolis by erosion that washed away the access road that connected the people of the area with Gombe metropolis.
Before the commencement of the project by the Federal Government in May 2017, the people of the communities were confronted with ecological challenges arising from persistent annual flood disasters and erosion and their destructive effect on lives and property.
Daily Trust gathered that in the past three years, the community has lost many lives and property worth millions of naira as a result of flood.
The project, which was commissioned and executed by the Ecological Fund Office (EFO), has brought relief to the communities.
After many years of neglect, on Tuesday, the Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Sulaiman Hussaini Adamu, commissioned and handed over erosion, flood control, road improvement works and a bridge that now links Yelanguruza with HayinMisau and other villages across the large valley that had separated them.
The minister, who expressed delight over the completion of the project, assured Nigerians that under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, no part of the country will be neglected in the distribution of government’s projects.
He presented the handover certificate to the Gombe State Commissioner for Environment and Forest Resources, Hajiya Sa’adatu Sa’ad Mustapha, who represented Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo.
In her remark, the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund Office, Dr Habiba Lawal, said the people of the area were previously living in constant threats of continued erosion, flood disaster and lack of access road.
“The only access road and bridge leading to Hayin Misau and neighbouring villages from Yelanguruza has collapsed and totally disconnected them from Gombe, bringing about untold hardship to the inhabitants,” she said.
She expressed gratitude with the Yelanguruza community for their cooperation with the contractor during the project.
In her remarks, the Permanent Secretary, EFO, Dr. (Mrs) Habiba Lawal commended Yelanguruza community for their cooperation with the contractor which facilitated the successful completion of the project.
She noted that the community had previously been living in fear of erosion and flood disasters which resulted in the collapse of the access road, urging them to protect the project from any act that would undermine it.
Speaking on behalf of the community, the ward head of the area, Malam Dahiru Waziri Adamu, expressed delight with the timely completion of the project; coming before the rainy season properly sets in.
He said the project has brought succour to hundreds of people living in the area.
“In the past three years, we lost over 160 houses to flood disaster that washed them away, destroying property worth millions of naira. Lives were also claimed by flooding whenever it rained heavily, apart from uncountable number of our animals that also drown over the years,” he said.
A resident of Hayin Misau, Malam Sani Bello, said during a heavy downpour last year, an elderly man drowned while trying to cross from Yelanguruza to HayinMisau.
“It was raining heavily that fateful day when my 70-year-old neighbour, who was crossing the valley from Yelanguruza axis, drowned and we never found his body,” Bello said.
Our correspondent reports that the project was one of the 26 ecological intervention projects across the six geo-political zones of the country approved by President Buhari in April 2017.
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