The serene, agrarian town is also burdened by bad roads and a deep gully has separated the community from neighbouring communities. Houses already overtaken by erosion litter the landscape. Other houses at the edge of the chasm are at the mercy of the infuriating erosion.

Across the gully is a neighbouring community, Ijoko-Ota. Residents in Ipamesan lamented that the gully had menacingly separated them from Ijoko-Ota and they now have to take longer routes to access the community.

Though the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area nears Lagos; that seems to be the only similarities it shares with its more prosperous neighbour with some good roads as the gullies have rendered the community nearly impassable both to vehicles and human beings.

The gullies created by the aggressive erosion wreaking havoc in the community have forced some landlords and residents to flee based on fears their houses might soon collapse.

Gullies are resultant effects of the removal of soil by running water. In many cases, they occur as a result of water being channelled across unprotected land and wash away the soil along the drainage lines. Excessive clearing, inappropriate land use and compaction of the soil expose the soil, making it unable to absorb excess water. Unfortunately, gullies occur in the most productive area of the community and it provides a harbour for vermin.

Thanks for reading this article. Please kindly like and comment to make us improve better. Thank you????.

Home

Nigeria

World

Politics

Sport

Opinion

Business

Technology

Guardian Life

Guardian Arts

Features

Guardian Woman

Guardian Angels

Property

Saturday Magazine

Sunday Magazine

#EndSARS

Guardian TV

Guardian TV

Guardian Life

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Telegram

Asia  

Grand Mosque in Mecca drops social distancing

By

17 October 2021 | 9:49 am

[FILES] Muslim worshippers perform the evening Tarawih prayer in the Grand Mosque complex in the holy city of Mecca. (Photo by – / AFP)

The Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia operated at full capacity Sunday, with worshippers praying shoulder-to-shoulder for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Workers removed floor markings that guide people to social distance in and around the Grand Mosque, which is built around the Kaaba, the black cubic structure towards which Muslims around the world pray.

“This is in line with the decision to ease precautionary measures and to allow pilgrims and visitors to the Grand Mosque at full capacity,” reported the official Saudi Press Agency.

Pictures and footage on Sunday morning showed people praying side by side, making straight rows of worshippers that are formations revered in performing Muslim prayers, for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold last year.

While social distancing measures were lifted, the authorities said visitors must be fully vaccinated against coronavirus and must continue to wear masks on mosque grounds.

Also, the Kaaba remained cordoned off and out of reach.

Saudi Arabia announced in August it will begin accepting vaccinated foreigners wanting to make the umrah pilgrimage.

The umrah can be undertaken at any time and usually draws millions from around the globe, as does the annual hajj, which abled-bodied Muslims who have the means must perform at least once in their lifetime.

In July, only around 60,000 inoculated residents were allowed to take part in a vastly scaled down form of the annual hajj.

The Covid-19 pandemic hugely disrupted both Muslim pilgrimages, which are usually key revenue earners for the kingdom that rake in a combined $12 billion annually.

Hosting the pilgrimages is a matter of prestige for Saudi rulers, for whom the custodianship of Islam’s holiest sites is their most powerful source of political legitimacy.

The once-reclusive kingdom began issuing tourist visas permitting foreign visitors to undertake more than just the pilgrimages for the first time in 2019 as part of an ambitious push to revamp its global image and diversify income.

Between September 2019 and March 2020, it issued 400,000 of them — only for the pandemic to crush that momentum as borders were closed.

But the kingdom is slowly opening up, and has started welcoming vaccinated foreign tourists since August 1.

Saudi Arabia also announced that fully-inoculated sports fans will from Sunday be allowed to attend events at all stadiums and other sports facilities, reported SPA.

It has also said that masks in most open spaces are no longer mandatory.

Saudi Arabia has registered over 547,000 coronavirus cases and 8,760 deaths.

Thanks for reading this article. Please kindly like and comment to make us improve better. Thank you????.