Panic as hungry gully stares down Kaduna community

If residents are to be believed, the uprooting of two mango trees in Zagi-Zagi area of Rigasa ten years ago has caused a gully erosion that has dislodged an entire community, destroying dozens of houses and displacing residents. Daily Trust reports.

Fifty-year-old Malam Musa Sarki watched the last room of his eight-bedroom home collapse a few days ago in Zagi-Zagi community of Rigasa, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Musa looked very disturbed when our correspondent approached him as he narrated how a heart-wrenching feeling engulfed him when his home was swallowed by a large ditch that has now consumed dozens of homes in Rigasa.

Even before the last room in Musa’s home collapsed, he had moved his wife and seven children to squat with a friend when he realised living in the abode he had called home for years had suddenly become dangerous. ‎

“I left my house two years ago and I am back to survey what is left of it. I saw the last room of the eight in the house collapse after a heavy downpour. So now, nothing is left of my house and the land,” he said

“I am now staying temporarily at a friend’s house pending when I can afford to rent another room because I have no money to build a new house. I’m struggling to feed my wife and seven children as well as struggling to get a place to keep them. Honestly, life has not been easy,” he said.

Not the Only Victim

But Musa is not the only victim of Rigasa’s hungry ditch which continues to expand due to the devastating effect of gully erosion. A stream has now been formed and channels rainwater downhill, which erodes the soil, further degrading and expanding the gully. Several houses, once rooted on land, have collapsed in the last seven years when the earth cracked, expanded and began to gulp them.

For a first time visitor to the ‎community, it is difficult to believe that houses once stood where the large gully now occupies. Elders in the community said the earth began to crack about seven years ago, it has since continued to expand ever since.

“It worsened ‎three years back when houses started collapsing one after the order, which forced residents to flee their homes,” said Musa. “You can see for yourself how the erosion took away our houses just recently. My neighbour’s eight rooms too collapsed and thank God he left with his family before it happened.”

“We are yet to get any assistance from the government even though some government officials have visited to survey the area but we have not heard anything since they left,” Musa said.

The most affected areas as observed by our reporter are Layin Couch by Makabarta from Daura Road, Kutungare Road, Garba Waziri Road ‎and Yahaya Dan Galadamima Road. The erosion has continued to expand to other streets such as Shanono area within Rigasa district.

Presently, hundreds of houses are threatened by the gully and several others have begun to show signs of cracks on the wall while some have already lost their fences to the ditch.

Gully Erosion

According to several studies published by ScienceDirect, gully erosion is a severe form of ‎land degradation caused by surface water and forms in arid and semiarid environments.

Gully formations are said to be the extreme types of land degradation in Nigeria and the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), says over 90 per cent of gully erosions in Nigeria are largely attributed to human activities such as poor road design, construction and abrupt termination of drains.

There is no doubt changes in land use could accelerate gully expansion hence Malam Abdullahi Dan Sarki’s theory that the genesis of the gully in Rigasa was the uprooting of two, old mango trees close to a drainage hole by neighbours might have caused the erosion.

Malam Abdullahi, who has lived in the community for over 10 years said: “I remember there were two large mango trees on the edge of a drainage channel that were pulled down by some residents in an attempt to expand their houses. Since then, the gully formed and it has continued to expand.”

“Anybody who lived in this area 10 years back will confirm this story that the genesis of the erosion was the two mango trees. I was renting in one of the houses when the trees were uprooted and now, this is what it has brought upon us; it has consumed so many houses,” he said.

For many people in Rigasa, the raining season now brings a lot of distress. Ibrahim Isiaku, a septuagenarian, said they are often agitated each time it rains.

“Most of our houses have cracks on them and it is only a matter of time before they collapse, the entire area is threatened by the erosion and it keeps expanding,” he said.

Another resident, Abdullahi Muhammad said there is fear that the entire area will become one very large ditch, adding that many who have tried to sell their houses even at meagre prices have not been successful.

“We are worried,” said Abdullahi, adding that, “we don’t have anywhere to go to and no one wants to buy the houses here.”

The secretary, Zagi-Zagi Community Youth and Elders Forum, Abdulrahman Abdulkareem made available copies of correspondences between the community and supervising agencies and ministries on their predicament.

Among the agencies written to were the Kaduna State Ministry of Environment, the Ecological Fund Management Committee as well as Kaduna State Environmental Protection Authority.

The Forum also sent a letter to the Kaduna State Ministry of Housing and Urban Development on October 28, 2019, which prompted their visit to survey the area.

The Director of Environment, Kaduna State Ministry of Environment, Mu’azu Usman Yusuf, said the Ministry was aware of the situation in Rigasa as well as other similar cases across the state’s 23 local government areas.

Usman said that even though managing erosion sites is capital extensive, the ministry and state government were doing everything possible to address the situation.

“The state government alone cannot manage it. But with the data we are gathering, we can avail it to the relevant federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to come to our aid,” he said.

“We have engaged the service of consultants to design and ascertain how much will be required to arrest the situation, including that of Rigasa. We have the design, which is to tell you how serious and important it is to the ministry and the state. We are also lucky to be included in the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Project (NEWMAP‎) and we have submitted our plans to them and we hope very soon we will start to address all the challenges identified,” he said.