Members of Ayetoro, a coastal community in Ondo State have cried out to government authorities to rescue them from the recurrent ocean surge that has ravaged their community for many years. This is as environmental experts have said that the time to act is now.
The latest episode which took place on Monday, April 17, saw more houses and public buildings in the community overrun by the ocean.
Reacting to the latest ocean surge, an environmental activist and Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, said: “Ayetoro is symbolic of the neglect our coastal communities have been exposed to over time. It is a pathetic story of a rich and well organized historic community being degraded.
“It is also a warning that many more communities are going under the water. It is a global phenomenon exacerbated by global warming.
“Now is the time for the government and the communities to draw a line in the sand and say this “far and no more!” That sounds easy to say, but it requires investment— just as this year’s Earth Day demands.
“The investment will be a combination of finance and of the utilisation of local knowledge and wisdom. To begin with, emergency measures must be taken to help the displaced and threatened communities. The new locations must also be protected by a thick belt of mangrove forests and other natural measures that will provide sustainable security and boost local resilience and economies at the same time.
“It is definitely not a time to give up or claim that the damage is too huge to be stemmed. Something must be done now!”
It was noted in an earlier report by the Nigerian Tribune on the community, that oil exploration and exploitation in the community by oil firms were found to be the major cause of the ocean surge as the ocean bed sank due to their activities which took their toll on the environment and impacted on the shoreline.
Effects of the oil exploration were identified as the reason for the loss of over five kilometres of the community’s coastline to the Atlantic Ocean.
This has greatly affected the livelihood of the community who are mostly fishermen, since the entry points have been eaten by the ocean which is now within the Ayetoro town.
According to the head of the community, Oba Micah Olaseni Ajijo: “Today, the sea has taken almost a third of the city and substantial infrastructure has been lost to the ocean. We used to have roads along the coastline and other facilities built by the community; all these have been lost to the ocean. A lot of houses have been lost and if I am to estimate the assets that have been lost by the community to the sea, it will be in the neighbourhood of N150bn and above. And this situation has really eroded the capital base in which a lot of our people can work and go to the sea. It has really affected our livelihood, leading to a lot of members of the community now being scattered all over the Ilaje communities, even up to Igbokoda, because they have lost their houses and properties to the sea.”
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