A recent video seen on Youtube about sand mining activities at the Asaba end of River Niger Bridge Onitsha suggests that the bridge piles may be threatened if their foundations are not protected. About five or six ‘keke’ dredgers were seen in the video with hoses actively pumping sand into nearby borrow pits. Many activities were taking place right under the bridge. In Lagos, where the Ministry of Waterfront regularized this procedure, dredgers maintain at least 500 metres from bridge pillars. The video of the Onitsha mining sites corroborates other reports about similar situations around bridges in the country. From a regulatory point of view, checking these abuses falls under the statutory mandates of the NIWA and/or the Federal Ministry of Works.
