Former Surveyor-General canvasses tree planting to prevent erosion

NAN-AE-2
Erosion
By Chidinma Agu
Lagos, Aug. 25, 2017 (NAN) The former Surveyor-General of the Federation, Prof Peter Nwilo, said on Friday that planting of trees and developing forests were plausible measures for solving the erosion menace in the country.
Nwilo made the observation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
According to him, mangroves, swampy areas and wetlands along coastal regions and forest in the South-East have been destroyed, thereby creating room for erosion.
“The menace of gully erosion and flooding has increasingly caused untold adversity to the South- East and the Mid-West regions.
“The gully erosion in some areas has attained spectacular and alarming proportions, turning the areas into real “bad lands’’.
“’In Lagos and along the nation’s coastal areas, the mangroves and swampy areas have been destroyed by land reclamation and continuous sand dredging.
“Planting of bamboo, palm and coconut trees can go a long way in checking the situation,’’ he said.
The professor said that other measures like piling and storm breakers could be adopted to combat the erosion menace, depending on the cause of the erosion in a particular area.
Nwilo said that in the ‘60s and ‘70s, tree plantations like guava, cashew, palm and rubber, among other economic and medicinal trees, adorned some of the corridors around the eastern parts.
He said that the trees, though economical and medicinal, were at that time the means of checking erosion in those areas.
The former surveyor-general of the federation said that individuals, communities and state governments should join hands to plant trees in erosion-prone areas.
He said that those in the coastal communities should mobilise and plant coconut trees, to serve as their environment watchdogs.
Nwilo said that most erosion occurred because of extensive forest clearing, often by bush burning and continuous cropping, with little or no replenishment of soil nutrients.
He added that continuous monitoring was vital in addressing the issue of gully and coastal erosion in the country. (NAN)
ACA/FLP/PIO
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(Edited by Folorunso Poroye/Idonije Obakhedo)