Assessment of Gully Erosion Problems for its Remediation in Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Gully erosion is increasingly threatening the survival of the environment and people of Eastern Nigeria. Nonetheless, it has been investigated in a segmented manner in the coverage of the region and the concept. This study assessed comprehensively gully erosion problems in Eastern Nigeria. The nine most gully erosion-risk areas of the research area, one situated in each of the region’s nine constituent states were purposively sampled. Then one gully alongside the community where it was located was conveniently sampled from each of the nine most gullied areas, in the perspectives of the directly and adversely affected community residents living proximal to the gullies’ head-scraps within a radius of 0.3km² (300m²). A total number of 370 household heads as respondents was purposively sampled for the problems of the menace. The Likert Scale used in ranking agreement with statements on the problems of gully erosion by the respondents has four levels: strongly agree (4); agree (3); disagree (2); and strongly disagree (1). Data was analyzed using Chi-square (X²) of SPSS, version 22.0. Results revealed that out of the ten gully erosion problems of the region, damage to footpaths, roads and properties was perceived by the respondents as the most problem whilst biodiversity loss was the least. The result of the hypothesis suggests that there is a significant difference in the mean rating among the affected people on the problems arising from gully erosion in the region (X² value = 261.040, p = 0.00 < 0.05), which has implication in developing sustainable remediation strategies for the gullies. The study recommended reduction in soil loss as the pivot around which other problems revolve, creation of educational and environmental awareness among the affected community residents and enactment of relevant environmental laws reduced to regulations enforceable through monitoring and reporting framework plus grants by government and donor agencies to the affected residents to enhance their coping strategies for curbing the problems and indeed remediating the gullies.