Nestled on the bank
of the Biase Local Government Area of Cross River State is the Agwagune
community. Due to its geography, the people of Agwagune mostly engage
in two occupations: farming and fishing. And there is a large market
within the community for sale of produce.
But over the last
decade, the coastal surroundings of Agwagune has become its albatross.
Perennial flooding and erosion have decimated the landscape, sweeping
away houses and farms and unsettling the people. All these have meant
the loss of fame, and sales for Agwagune, for the community was reputed
as a rural trading hub and picturesque scenery for tourism.
This picture is not
peculiar to Agwagune. In most rural parts of Cross River State, nature
appears to have gone beserk. Rainstorm disasters, raging floods, and
mudslides have become the lot of the people these recent times.
Residential houses, schools, churches, hospitals, economic trees,
communication masts, and public offices have been at the receiving end
of this rage. The consequence is a dislocation of social and economic
life.
Natural disasters
in Cross River in the last three years can be likened to a “biblical
deluge”. Every wet season is accompanied by savage rainfall, resulting
in some deaths and million naira worth of damages.
Even in Calabar,
the state capital, and other urban centres, sewers are clogged while
streams in rural communities overflow their banks – blocking streets
and foot paths.
Appeals for aid
flood government relief agencies, but the magnitude of the disaster
often overwhelms government’s response. Since each destruction leaves
in its wake mud slides, de-capped houses, loss of income, poverty and
emotional stress, it is always a struggle to rehabilitate the victims
and assuage their feelings.
In all these,
Agwagune is a case study. On the heels of the environmental degradation
of this community comes problems of inaccessibility. Vehicles now find
it difficult driving in. Thus, the economy of Agwagune, like other
villages around it, appears victimised by nature.
The havoc wrecked
on houses by flood and erosion has prompted the state government to
build some housing units for the displaced. But these apartments are
like a drop in the ocean. The federal government, which promised 200
units of 400 flats in Agwagune to solve the problem of accommodation,
is yet to fulfill the promise after five years of waiting. Now, there
is pressure on Abuja to keep to its word.
Every market day,
traders from the urban centres and other rural areas struggle to visit
Agwagune to buy or sell. While traders from the cities go there with
cloths, electronics, metals and shoes to sell, the natives provide
agricultural produce for purchase, including okro, yam, cassava, garri,
vegetables, fish, as well as farming implements like hoes, diggers,
fishing nets, cutlasses, spears, and shovels.
The farm produce
are, of course, sold cheaply due to the now difficult terrain of
Agwagune. Often these produce, because of their perishable nature, rot
away once buyers from the city cannot access the community.
Uprooted in the community
Last October, an
unprecedented flood swept away crops and farmlands, as well as homes in
the community. Farmers warn that the harvest is likely to be meagre
this year as a lot of the crops were washed away.
An assessment by
the joint team of the National Emergency Management Agency [NEMA] and
the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency [SEMA], showed that
the situation was beyond the individuals and the community to handle.
The agencies donated foodstuff and building materials to the community.
The traditional
ruler of Agwagune community, Onun Fidelis Effime, who received the
materials, appealed to the federal government to, without further
delay, commence construction work on the promised 200 units of 400
flats for the landslide victims.
One of the
displaced persons from the community, who now lives with relatives,
Joseph Ogbodim, said he has been squatting with his kinsman for the
past two years.
“The six room
apartment is grossly inadequate for his family and mine, given the
African extended family system. My humble appeal is to government and
those concerned to make concerted efforts towards rehabilitating us”,
he said.
One of the children
of the victim, Michael Ogbodim,15, who likes to play football with his
peers in the compound, said though his uncle has been generous in
accommodating them for this long, it would have been better for them to
live in their own house.
“At the age of 15,
custom demands that I should begin to plant economic trees such as
pear, coconut, orange, flowers, and mangoes around our compound which I
can grow up to appreciate, but this cannot be done in another person’s
compound,” he said.
