The gully ripped away part of my house during the rain. Transportation is very difficult. For example, if you want to take a pregnant woman to a health facility, it is a very hard process. The difficulties accessing the community affect all socio-economic activities in the area.
This includes access to health facilities and schools for the children.Adamu Danji, The Juaro Abare community leader, was recalling the havoc wreaked on his community by the widening gully formed by soil erosion and heavy rains.
His counterpart in Wuro Ladde, Jauro Adamu, had similar recollections about the deadly gully: “In 2023, more than 10 people could not get home because of the heavy downpour … In 2022, 5 people drowned trying to cross a makeshift bridge constructed by the villagers”.
They are both from the seven low-income communities living in and around the 21-km gully corridors stretching from the Federal College of Education (Technical) [FCE (T)] to the railway station in Gombe town, the capital of Gombe state.
The 200+ active gullies in the town have flooded and killed at least 11 people every year, including women and children, and a total of 297 people since 1996, according to the Overseeing Senior District head of Gombe – despite State and Federal Government efforts.
Every year, the rains widened the gullies and advanced them several kilometers, consuming entire farms, small and large ruminants, hundreds of homes, and critical infrastructure, and thus perpetuating poverty, hunger, and despair among the residents.
Each rainfall triggered widespread panic; halting businesses, making children miss school, and leaving expectant mothers worried about their delivery dates. The gullies affected life in these communities even when they were not flooded or expanding.
Thieves used it as a hideout, emerging to rob, rape, and harass those who had no option but to cross the gully, or to rob nearby houses and vanish into the maze of gullies. Water stagnated in pools that bred waterborne diseases and mosquitoes. It became a site for open defecation and dumping wastes.
ACReSAL
In January 2023, the Gombe State Project Management Unit (SPMU) of the World Bank supported Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project organized a community interaction in the gullies around the FCE(T) in Gombe Town. It was clear that there was an overwhelming need for an intervention.
ACReSAL signed a contract for gully erosion control in November 2023, and work began the next month. The intervention involved structural and non-structural, solid and flexible, engineering and bioengineering measures, including excavation, earthwork, construction of reinforced concrete channels, bioremediation using gabions and reno mattresses for gully and channel bank protection, as well as other civil works such as backfilling of gullies, provision of proper drainage and retention structures, and stabilization of gully banks.
Although, only 65 percent complete, 65 hectares of degraded land have already been recovered through concrete work and backfilling, and the remaining 35 hectares will be recovered by the end of 2024.
The Impact
The Gombe State ACReSAL Project Coordinator, Dr. Sani Adamu Jauro, estimates that 8,640 people from 720 households were directly benefitted as they were at risk of losing their houses, and were also affected by diseases and flooding.
In addition, over 1.6 million people from two local government councils, Akko and Gombe, and other parts of the state who had to cross the gully benefitted from having a usable road to cross the gully. Property saved included houses, schools, and infrastructure was valued at 45 billion Naira (~USD $27 million).
Skilled and unskilled workers received short term employment to work on the gully rehabilitation project, while some received compensation for land used or damaged as part of the intervention. A total of 390 million Naira (~USD 235,000) was paid as compensation to Project Affected Persons (PAPs), while 60 vulnerable and elderly people (more than 60 years old) were paid 291,500 Naira (~USD 175) each on compassionate grounds. Some used the compensation to good use.
Alhaji Usman Galadima, a local resident, credits a series of lectures organized for the residents by ACReSAL on financial management gave people ideas and ways and means of utilizing the new funds: ”Most of my neighbors were compensated well because you could not buy their houses even if it was free of charge, but the compensation helped them to move from the ghetto to better places. They put the remainder of the money to profitable uses – started new businesses, bought machines and started a new life”.
Livelihood activities are reportedly thriving, and local traders confirm that commercial activities in the area have improved due to an increase in patronage.
Rising profits have helped the traders send their children to school, while social cohesion and interaction among the hitherto divided communities have also significantly increased.
Finally, with the gully restored, flooding controlled and vegetative cover restored, land values in the area have begun to rise.
Ibrahim Abdullahi Gurama, a shop owner in London Maidorawa who moved to a new space after receiving compensation for his old shop on the project affected site, narrated his benefits: “My previous shop was edging very close to getting taken out by the flood and I was losing hope when suddenly people from ACReSAL came and brought this massive intervention.
“My sales have doubled since I relocated to this new shop after receiving compensation. This gully erosion control project is a game changer for businesses around here as people’s purchasing power has increased.
“Even plots of land and homes have appreciated in value and goods are easily conveyed to my shop without hassles. Even the waste disposal culture of the people of this area has tremendously improved because of the enlightenment”.
Abubakar Abba, a 32-year-old youth leader from London Maidorawa, sees other benefits: “Now the law enforcement agencies can respond to distress calls quickly and surveillance has also improved.
“This development has forced miscreants out of the area ushering in a regime of peace and quiet”.
There are fewer mosquitoes now, and malaria cases have reduced. People can visit their loved ones across the gully more easily because of the new roads and pedestrian crossings across the stormwater drains. Conveying sick patients in vehicles is easier and open defecation has reduced.
What next?
ACReSAL is providing support to the communities to protect the facility. Local guards have been engaged by the project to provide security. Community members have been trained to plant trees and look after the ones to be planted.
Waste collection centres have been built around the gullies to help communities dispose of waste appropriately. And residents are telling the world about the intervention that ended their days of sleeping with their eyes open because of the fear of flooding.