Road construction major cause of gully erosion – NEWMAP

Over 90 per cent of gully erosions in Nigeria are caused by poor termination of drains during road construction activities, the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) has said.

National Coordinator of NEWMAP, Mr. Salisu Dahiru, disclosed this on the sideline of the 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on Thursday in New Delhi, India.

The NEWMAP boss said that most civil contractors in Nigeria fail to comply with the regulation that drains from road construction should be properly terminated at natural streams and other lower catchment areas, and not few meters from the roadside.

“A lot of studies we conducted indicate that over 90 per cent of the gullies were as a result of poorly terminated drains during road construction activities.

“This is coupled with the fact that the soil in the South East, where these gullies are common, is soft, loose and has already lost its vegetation cover.

“So, when heavy rain falls directly on a loose bare soil, the force and volume of the water end up hitting and eroding the soil little by little until it becomes deep and wide gully,’’ Dahiru said.

According to him, gully formation and gully development are the most extreme types of land degradation in Nigeria, reiterating that every road design stipulates that drains must be properly terminated.

He however, blamed ministries of works at the three tiers of government for lack of thorough supervision, adding that “the responsibility is on the ministry of works, not on the contractor to make sure that contractors carry out road construction projects in accordance with design specifications.

“That is why we are putting the responsibility of ensuring that these drains are well terminated on the relevant government agency that is awarding and supervising the project.’’

He however, said that NEWMAP has embarked on further dialogue with relevant government agencies responsible for supervising road projects in the country, with a view to enhancing the capacities of these institutions.

NEWMAP has invited relevant agencies “to partner with us so that we can have a well-harmonised policy on road construction in Nigeria.

“Once federal, states and local governments agree to implement the harmonised policy, we can now extract some regulations out of the policy, which can be jointly enforced by various layers of government.’’

He said that gully erosion had cut off many communities and led to loss of lives, livelihoods and property, including public infrastructure such as roads, rail lines, water and electricity installations. (NAN)