Erosion destroys homes and farmland in Kano community

In Mesar Tudu, every rainfall brings the fear that another home or farm will disappear. Water from surrounding settlements rushes into the rural community, cuts deeper gullies through its sandy soil and carries away land that families have cultivated for generations.

For Yusuf Abdulwahab, 72, erosion has already taken the farm he worked from the age of 18. He said the four-acre farm once produced maize, millet, guinea corn and groundnuts during both the rainy and dry seasons. Flooding first swallowed half the land. He managed the remainder for more than 10 years, producing only enough food for his family, until erosion consumed the rest five years ago.

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I lost my farm completely.

“I lost my farm completely,” Abdulwahab said. He now rents farmland in a neighboring community to grow what he can eat with his family. The erosion has reached his home, and attempts to slow it by placing sand-filled sacks around the house failed after rain washed them away.

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Now it is eating at my house. I am old and have no means to relocate. I have a large family to care for.

Abdulwahab said he has no means to relocate and worries about the future of his large family. Other residents describe similar losses. Mesar Tudu, in Gezawa Local Government Area and about 40 kilometers from Kano metropolis, receives runoff from upstream villages including Bujawa and Kaurawa Yan’Hudu.

During heavy rainfall, residents say roads and paths become impassable. Flood channels and deeply eroded routes now cut through the community, while farmland has been replaced by sand-filled channels. The investigation describes a widening gap between warnings about climate risks, government response and the daily reality faced by vulnerable rural residents.

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The rain washed everything away.