BY BENSON OKOBI-ALLANAH
A friend I was giving a ride in my Mazda car once asked me while driving, ‘Bros, what actually cause flooding of these roads?’
I remember telling him, ‘My dear, many things lead to flood, but the four major ones I can readily mention here is road without drainage, building on waterways, blocking built drainages with refuse, and constructing drainages that are shallow, not deep enough.’
He came again with another question as I waddled through the flood at Achalla-Igbuzor Road in Asaba with my car for it was there I was formerly domiciled but had to pack when I could no longer withstand the yearly menace of flooding of the road, and its attendant thick dust during dry season.
‘Why will people in their right senses try to block drainages meant to control flood waters they know will disturb them if not checkmated, and why will a contractor worth his onion construct drainage that is shallow, and government that awarded such contract, approve of it; then how does a government feel when it constructs roads without drainages, or provide drainage that is shallow when it chooses to build one?’
No answers were given to these questions immediately for I was under pressure trying hard to pull through the length of the flooded road without getting my car submerged in it.
Finally out of the flooded near three and half kilometer road, I parked my car, and with a bottle of chilled Star larger I was nursing, provided him with all the answers.
I told him that they were people who ought not to have been created human beings, but because of God’s consideration, made them humans.
Such persons, I told him, are the ones who though they are human beings, still choose their behavioural attitudes outside those of normal human beings. They are those who throw and sweep dirt into drainages, especially when the drainage has no manholes covering it.
They do this with reckless abandon. They see such open manholes as their ready refuse dump, heaping all imaginable eyesores one can think of into the open drainages.
People, I mean some land developers, out of greed, try to build on waterways after they have exhausted the land area they are supposed to build on. Under high tension cables, on waterways, they build their houses because they need more tenants in the commercials buildings, because it is mainly commercials houses they build in such places highly vulnerable to danger.
I still told him that a contractor might decide to construct a road without drainage, or render a shabby job by constructing a shallow drainage if the actual money budgeted or meant for the construction of a road to be commended after being delivered, had been meddled with by those that gave out the contract through kick-backs.
Since the rain came in full blast, many flood prone areas have been exposed both those already known and those unknown before.
Areas around DLA Road are not places one can visit the moment it rains. Residents of those places have been lamenting over the menace of flood that get them trapped in their various homes any time it rains.
Until such floods disappear, they cannot come out of their houses.
A resident of DLA Road, Mrs. BisiOlanipekun, who owns a shop in the area, said since rain began in earnest, she has been finding it difficult to record any tangible sales as she can no longer access her shop due to flood that took over all the area.
Another resident, Chimdi Akufenwa, a vulcanizer in the area, said he had to stop working temporarily waiting for the flood to dry before he started work again. He, therefore, pleaded with the local and state governments to save residents of DLA area from the perennial flooding, saying ‘We are actually praised the state government during Okowa administration when he eventually came and tar DLA Road, thinking that would put an end to the flood we experience yearly, though the volume of flood reduced due to the Storm Water Drainage constructed, but we still experience flood a great deal, we living in this part of the city here.’
Another area of the city flooding is terribly experienced is Ogbeilo/12x axis where a resident who pleaded anonymity, says he is not surprise given the fact that most residents of these two areas are fond of throwing refuse into the drainages. He says even when some of them the residents make effort to de-silt the drainages; the de-silted materials find their way back to the drainages as they are not evacuated to the authorized dumpsites. ‘Sometimes, the waste materials last for four to five months before they are removed; that time, more than half of the waste must have found their way to the gutter.’ He noted.
At Ogbeilo Road near the Ogwa-ukuAhaba, where the native Parliamentarians known as Otu-Ihaza meet for deliberations, and the street that spurs off Ogbeilo Road leading to Ibusa road, is heavily flooded any time it rains to the extent that vehicles dread passing through it, thus, leaving pedestrians to their fate.
Some residents of the area, are alleged to be shooting themselves on their feet because of the way and manner they recklessly throw refuse into the open drainages many concerned members of the public have been calling authorities in charge of roads to provide with covers to prevent these conscious-barren residents from dumping their refuse.
A man, a senior citizen who looks every inch very fastidious, bemoaned the dirty status many Nigerians are now identified with. He says ‘How can a normal human being be sweeping dirt from his or her house, and finds the drainage to be the real place to sweep them into? Then again, I ask how government feels constructing roads without the accompanying drainages? Why do they have to construct shallow drainages when they choose to construct one? The effect is the flood we are seeing right now. My concern over this matter is that our leaders see good things abroad which they fail to replicate here. It is just unfortunate. Just take a look at a road in a state capital. It is not only this; I have seen many of this type. It is not up to four months I returned from Britain where I went to see one my children. Go there, you can see all these mess we see around here. It is a thing of shame to a country like Nigeria. I don’t know why successive administration in Delta State has not deemed it fit to visit the Asaba City Master Plan. I bet this is the only way the menace of flooding can be put to rest.’ he advised. ‘This is not in any way condemning other measures already put in place.’ He stated.
The street behind the Anti-cult office that leads to Ibusa Road by BYC is no longer accessible because of the stagnant flood that refused to dry up. The road that was graded in preparation for its tarring, was abandoned long before the rainy season set in. The bulldozer is still lying there till date. Akwuebulu area of the city on the Dennis Osadebay Way just before old Abraka Market is another flash point of massive flooding any time it rains.
And the situation has been made worse since luxury buses and other heavy duty vehicles that are east-bound from the North and Lagos started making use of it, as the Bonsac portion in Asaba of the Benin-Asaba Expressway became unmotorable.
To avoid the long, infuriating hold-up in that side of Asaba that often leads to long travel hours, luxury and heavy-duty truck drivers now prefer getting to the east through inside town, thus compounding the already deplorable state of the road.
