Bayelsa Community Appeals to State, FG over Coastal Erosion

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Following incessant coastal erosion impacts in Anyama-Ogbia community in the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, indigenes have appealed to the state and the federal governments to help them conquer the ravaging coastal erosion.

They recommended that the government build shoreline protection to mitigate the erosion problem.

The community, which staged a peaceful protest Tuesday, lamented that both governments have abandoned them to languish in the devastating impacts of the ecological menace over the years.

They carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘Coastal Erosion is Destroying Us, ‘Is Anyama-Ogbia Not Part of Niger Delta?’, ‘Erosion is Exposing Us to Hardship’, ‘Government And Residents’ Buildings Have Been Washed Away’, ‘NDDC Come to Our Aid’ and ‘Federal Government, Bayelsa Government Come and Help Us’, among others.

Speaking on their plight, a Compound Chief, Ase Humphrey, said they no longer have enough accommodation in the community, as coastal erosion has washed their houses and some government projects away.

He listed some of the public property lost to the deadly erosion including a church building, two rice mills, a primary school, three jetties, a post office and a police station while a colonial oil mill was on the verge of being washed away.

Humphrey said, “This side that we are in is a new settlement. The old original Anyama has been eroded long ago. Coastal erosion is disturbing us, there is nothing we can do. Some people have moved out to other places because of fear of coastal erosion. We are dying here.”

Also speaking, the Secretary-General of the community, Potency Aleibharola-Owei, said the community has been suffering from the effect of ecological disaster since it was founded in 1655.

“Coastal erosion is our problem. Anyama-Ogbia was founded in 1655. Since then, coastal erosion has been disturbing us as a people. We are suffering, and the erosion has exposed us to untold hardship. Over 500 houses have been washed away over the years”, he stated.

The community, therefore, appealed to the governments as well as interventionist agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission and philanthropists to come to their aid by building shoreline protection to mitigate the erosion problem.

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