CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Soil erosion is a
problem that needs to be controlled in order to forestall its danger in any
locally, soil is fundamental to all land
use and care has to be taken to ensure that it is not misused or destroyed. Most of this soil erosion is
caused by the interference of man through human activities and ignorance.
Mismanagement in soil use greatly accelerates this erosion process.
Soil is one of our
most precious resources, the loss of this resources through land degradation
process in an urban areas such as soil erosion, is one of the most serious
environmental problems we are faced with as a gradual process that occurs when
the actions of water wind, and other factors eat away and wear down the land
causing the soil to deteriorate or disappear completely. Soil
erosion/deterioration and low quality of water due to erosion and run off has
often become a major problem around the world.
Soil erosion is one
form of soil degradation along with soil compaction, low organic matter, loss
of soil structure, poor internal drainage, Salinization, and soil acidity
problems. These other forms of soil degradation, serious in themselves, usually
contribute to accelerated soil erosion, therefore humans obviously need to be
much more knowledgeable about this problem.
Much has been written
in academic papers about erosion. Apart from the writings of the academic
works, a lot of things have been said concerning erosion problem all over the
world, to the extent that erosion is almost becoming a household word. The
paper, medium, Internet and in literature books, has written much about
erosion, its cause and effect in Nigeria and rest of the world.
Erosion attacks human
endeavors in various sectors. Its ugly effects can be seen both in rural and
urban sectors of not only Nigeria but countries all over the world. In the
urban sector, the danger of erosion manifest itself in the form of destruction
of peoples property (washed out houses) and the destruction of road and
streets. Deep gullies often cut off the urban streets thereby denying the
residents from motorized access to their houses. The rural area is not spared
from the destruction as most of their crops are often washed away. Some of the
rural settlements have no motorable roads since their roads have been destroyed
by erosion. Erosion also removes top soil which contains the plant nutrient
thereby leaving the soil impoverished and unproductive. Besides making
agricultural soil unproductive, erosion of agricultural land and runoff result
in the deposition of soil particles in unwanted area’s (sedimentation of roads,
creeks, e.t.c) with all its negative consequence for traffic
Furthermore,
the importance of soil erosion control is not restricted to the maintenance of
the productive potential and fertility of soil for future generation. It is
also an effective means to ensure employment in urban and rural areas and
reduce urban and rural exodus. Efficient erosion control is therefore very
advantageous from the ecological and social perspectives, besides being highly
significant from an economic point of view. Therefore the study of such a
phenomenon as harmful as this deserves attention. Any expansion on its study is
not a waste of time.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
It is surprisingly that erosion
continues to be a serious environments hazard in urban center of Afuze, after
much has been invested on its control both by the government and non- government
organization. The local government had at defferent time executed erosion
control and flood channelization project in Afuze. The fact that erosion continues to be threat
to life and property after enormous investment on its control seems to suggest
that something is wrong some where. Probably what was done was not adequate or
what was done was done in the wrong way? This should leave every reasoning mind
in doubt as to the efficacy of what was done, it is this doubts created by the
re-occurrence of this erosion problem despite the various efforts to check it
that informed the choice of this topic. Therefore for the purpose of this
project, a lot of questions will be ask in respect of the state of erosion
control in Afuze, these questions includes,
A.
What
has been done so far by way of controlling erosion in Afuze?
B.
Are
what has been done so far adequate?
C.
Are
there certain things, which should be done that were left undone?
D.
Were
things done in the wrong way?
E.
What
is left to be done?
Based on the above,
this research project intends to fill this gap that is lacking in knowledge as
far as soil erosion in Afuze is concerned. And as far as the author is
concerned, no researcher has ever researched on this topic in afuze.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of this study is to access
the adequacy and effects of soil erosion
control measure in Afuze this objectives
shall be achieved through the following
1.
To
determine the type of soil erosion in the study area
2.
To
identify the nature and characteristics of soil in the study area.
3.
To
examine the factor responsible for soil erosion in the study area.
4.
To
determine the effects of soil erosion in the study area.
5.
To
identify the adequacy of the various measures that has been taken to control
soil erosion
6.
To
make recommendation
1.4
HYPOTHESIS
In this research study the
hypothesis bellow shall be tested.
A)
The
cost of controlling soil erosion in Afuze is not effective and it has a
significant effect on the control of soil erosion, the people and
environment
B)
The
cost of controlling soil erosion in Afuze is effective and as such, can check
soil erosion in the area
1.5 RESEARCH
METHODS
Research
methods in geography and regional planning involves all the process of field
investigation, data collection, processing and analysis of data, classification
and interpretation as well as test of significance which are designed to
establish the critical level of association among diverse geographic variables.
In research of this nature, data collection, analysis and discussion are made
easier when based on a defined spatial closure Threkson et- al (1970)
1.5.1 DATA REQUIRED AND THEIR SOURCES
Data required for
this study would be derived from two main sources. Documentation and field
sources.
Documentation
sources includes published and unpublished materials, such as books, reports,
articles, the internet and maps
Field
sources which are the primary sources include direct measurement, and indirect
interviews.
1.5.2 METHOD OF DATA
COLLECTION
Questionnaires
will be well structured and administered in order to obtain information that is
relevant for the proper unfoldment of the research objectives. The sample size
of 125 questionnaires will be used in this research. This will be drawn from
the population of study i.e Afuze. The 125 respondents would be chosen from 5
Major Street to represent the total population of the area of study, this
sample size was chosen to reduce time and cost as the researcher will not be
able to come in contact with every body in the area.
1.5.3 METHOD OF DATA
ANALYSIS
For the analysis of data,
statistical methods will be applied. In order to investigate whether the
various measures adopted to control soil erosion have been effective or not,
simple percentage and the contingency of chi-square statistics will be used.
This was necessary to analyze the level of effectiveness of control and effects
as perceived by the residents of Afuze town, variable will be cross-tabulated
so as to see weather there is relationship between them because the survey will
be conducted at different streets in the study area.
1.6 THE
STUDY AREA
Afuze is the local
government head quarters of Owan East local government area. Owan East is one
of the eighteen local government areas in Edo-State. Afuze town has a distance
of one hundred and three (103) Km from Benin City. Owan East local government
area came into existence in 1991 when Owan West was created. Owan East local
government shares boundaries with neighboring local government as follows to
the East Owan west local government area and to the north is Akoko Edo local
government area; the south is Esan west local government area of Edo state. It
is geographically demarcated by latitude 7-15 north and 60-
50 north and contiguities 500- 50 east and 60- 15 east of
the Greenwich meridian. Afuze is the word one (1) in the geo-political zone or
sample words in Owan East local government area.
1.6.1 CLIMATE
Afuze
(Owan East) experience the characteristics of humid tropical climate of high
rainfall intensity and seasonal high temperature. Rainfall starts form April
and ends in October in most cases. Over
the entire basin, means annual rainfall value are put as 1.556 min with the
mouth of July and September having the highest rainfall while the mouths of
January and December records the lowest rainfall in the year. The type of rain
that is prevalent in this study area is conventional rainfall and is unevenly spread
throughout the days of the week and seasons.
1.6.2 VEGETATION
The
vegetation of the study area is a reflection of the rain forest with a
predominate moist deciduous forest relation vegetation rich in timber resources
such as Iroko. Obeche Apha, mahogany, Acacia and walnut. The tallest trees are
36 meters high but there are two other distinct canopies of trees bellow 15
meters a part from the tropical hard wood.
Food crops found in the area includes oil palm, yam, cassava, coco yam,
plantain, rice maize, beans e.t.c
1.6.3 RELIEF
Afuze (Owan - East)
is situated on a plateau underline by the fine-grained sand and carbonaceous
shelen clay Akinbode (1993). The plateau can be divided into two structural
components, namely the flat terrain and the dissected slope, which mount the
side of the plateau. The relatively flat terrain has a slop of 1038 meters over
most of which the elevation varies between 350 and 460 mater above datum with
the highest point- place like Igue, Ake, Ikhin and Otuo northern part of the area. The flat terrain interlay has contributed to
the settlement of people in the plateaus. Part of the settlement extends to the
valley. According to Imoroa. These northern parts of Edo state consist of
Precambrian rocks.
1.6.4 SOIL
The
soil found in this area according to Imoroa (1993) is classified as ferrasoils
and brown lat-soil they are soil rich in ferrous and aluminous. They are deep and strong weathered soil
derived from sand sediment and they have a brownish and reddish colour. This
soil is sensitive to erosion. They are mainly used for crop production
especially cocoa, cassava, rice and maize, finally the soils are well drained
in most parts of the cassava producing areas.
1.7
COMMUNICATION/TRANSPORTATION
Communication refers
to all means of communicating between people and places, Olomo (1997). Common
means of communication in the study area includes post office, mobile phones,
roads (for transportation)with the exception of the following, waterways,
airways and other means of communication.
Transportation by
road is very important in Afuze town. Transportation has been viewed as
fundamental for day to day activities, for without transport, neither will
there be access to socio- economic activities in the area. Lord Lugard wrote
that the natural development of African may be summed up in one word transport”
1.8
SETTLEMENT
PATTERNS
According
to Olomo (1997) three settlement patterns exist and these are nucleated, linear
and dispersed settlement. In Afuze town, the settlement pattern noticed is
linear pattern, where most of the settlements are located along the road side.