Akwa Ibom government has attributed the perennial flooding and erosion in Uyo and its environs to violation of the City Drainage Masterplan by developers and unhealthy attitudes of residents.
Commissioner for Environment and Solid Minerals, Mr Charles Udoh, said on Tuesday while speaking with newsmen on government’s efforts at controlling flooding in the state during this raining season in Uyo, the state capital.
He lamented that Uyo was still experiencing flooding in spite of the huge sums expended by successive administrations due to the attitudes of residents, who, he said, had turned drainage into refuse dumps.
Udoh noted that most of the erosion and flood-prone areas in the metropolis were induced by activities of residents through building of houses on water channels.
He added that developers of city drainage masterplan had also wrongly terminated drains, while residents’ attitude of dumping refuse into gutters and waterways was the major cause of flooding in the state capital.
Udoh said that Ewet Housing Estate was created as purely residential area, noting, however, that high rise buildings, hotels and night clubs had now been built all over the place.
“We are spending billions of naira to check flooding in the state, but the problem there is not rain or water; rather, it is man-made.
“Man turns drainage into his refuse dump; whereas water will always find its level. When you block drain through which water should flow, it will definitely create its own channel.
“Government cannot clean all the gutters, but only the main ones, like we are doing now. It costs us millions of naira.
“If you see the heavy equipment they are using, that’s why we need you (journalists) to educate our people, at least, from the moral point of view,” Udoh said.
He said that IBB Avenue, which was built on natural water drainage, was now posing an environmental challenge to the state, which government was trying to resolve.
The commissioner described the avenue as the lowest point in Uyo, stressing that past efforts to check flooding in the state capital did not take this into consideration while designing drainages.
Udoh expressed worries that the economic and social lives of the people living and doing business within that avenue and its environ had been negatively impacted by the flooding.
He said that contract to remove flood water from the avenue and its environs had been awarded to China Road and Bridge Construction (CRBC) and that it would be completed within 19 months.
Udoh urged residents to avoid dumping refuse into gutters to ensure the safety of their houses and property against flooding and windstorm disasters, as rains set in. (NAN)
