By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

The traditional ruler of Obosi in Anambra state, Igwe Chidubem Iweka (Igwe Iweka III), has warned the people living in the Obosi environs to desist from carrying out activities that cause environmental degradation and disasters.

He gave the warning on the occasion of the inauguration of the Obosi Emergency Disaster Management Committee, which took place at Igwe Iweka’s palace on September 4.

Igwe Iweka, also, charged members of the committee to enforce the government’s directives that would protect our environment and prohibit people from carrying out activities that harm it.

“It is man that is destroying our environment. Most environmental disasters are caused by human beings’ activities. For example, when we dump refuse in drainages, the drainages will be clogged, and the flow of rain water obstructed. This can lead to soil erosion.

“So I am begging people to dig catchment pits in their compounds for collection of water so as to check the erosion gullies destroying our town,” Iweka said.

More so, during the inauguration ceremony, the President General of the Obosi Development Union (ODU), Nze Chimezie Obi (Esq), said that the sundering in two of a trunk road at Ugamuma village, Obosi stampeded the Obosi people to enlist the help of wealthy people and the government regarding checking the Ugamuma village erosion menace.

He praised Engr. Eric Anyamene, profusely, for executing measures to halt the Ugamuma erosion gully’s further devastation of Obosi land.

During the inauguration ceremony of the Obosi Emergency Disaster Management Committee, Igwe Chidubem Iweka pledged to donate hundred bags of cement to support the ongoing work at the erosion gully at Ugamuma village.

While Ojudo Obosi promised to donate 200 bags of cement as his own support for checking the Ugamuma village erosion gully, Chuka Mgbemena said that he would bring fifty bags of cement to support the ongoing work at that erosion gully.

The seventeen-man committee inaugurated by Igwe Chidubem Iweka would oversee response to such environmental disasters as flooding, erosion devastation, fire outbreak, and building collapse that might happen in the ancient Obosi kingdom.

The chairman of the committee is Pastor Gilbert Obiefuna while the vice chairman is Arc. Isaac Arinze. And its secretary is DSP Ekene Ofokansi. Some members of the committee are Engr. Eric Anyamene, Chief Nnamdi Ifebi, Dr. Chiedu Uyamadu, Dr. Uche Agbanusi, Anthony Amaifeobu, Nze Shedrack Okenwa, and others.

Chiedu Uche Okoye is of the Anambra state ministry of information and value reformation.

Members of the committee posed for a photograph with the traditional ruler of Obosi and chairman of the Anambra state traditional rulers’ council, Igwe Chidubem Iweka.