The threat of cutting the Onitsha-Atani Road into two at Deeper Life Junction by under-water erosion has continued to increase by the day, leaving the people of Ogbaru worried as to what will be their fate after the coming flood.
The lone road that leads into Ogbaru and connects the rest 15 communities of the Council will require a major embankment from the bottom of the river to the road level to arrest the disaster that is waiting to happen.
Mindful of the many challenges of government, the Council Chairman, Hon. Arinzechukwu Awogu, pulled the Project Director of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Mr. Friedrich Wieser, to the Deeper Life section of the road in an attempt to have the construction giant tackle the threat.
Hon. Arinzechukwu Awogu appealed partly from the point of Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR), and partly to assuage the feelings of many residents of Ogbaru who are of the view that it is the massive evacuation of sand from the River Niger by the construction giant that has triggered the speed at which water erosion is eating up Ogbaru coastlines.
The Council Chairman impressed on Julius Berger, whose second Niger Bridge project site is not more than a kilometer from the erosion site, to help arrest the erosion measured close to 60 meters long and requiring urgent attention to save the people of Ogbaru from being cut-off from the rest of the State.
Findings show that a number of tricycles and their passengers have been reported to have fallen into the river, though no life was lost but feared that the height of the water has risen following the rains and there may be no survivor if any tricycle falls into the area now.
Earlier, the Project Director, Mr. Friedrich Weiser, had taken the Council Chairman on inspection of the on going massive construction of access road from Ogbaru to the inter-section at Obosi end of the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway, where the Julius Berger boss assured that the project will be completed late 2021.
It is hoped that the construction giant will help save the Deeper Life section of the Onitsha-Atani Road from being cut into two.
