Environmental experts in the South-South have called for effective waste management system and strict adherence to town planning to avert flooding in the region.

The environmentalists who made the call in a survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), identified poor town planning and blockage of the drainage as major causes of flooding, especially in the urban centres.

They called on State Governments in the region to ensure proper town planning, not allowed buildings on water channels and cotinue to sensitise the people on dangers of flooding.

They respondents also advised that concerned authorities should desilt the drainage, while residents should avoid dumping waste in water channels.

The Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), a non-governmental organisation, Mr Nnimmo Bassey, said in Uyo that government and the citizens had roles to play to avoid flooding.

Bassey noted that forecasts had hinted on expected flooding in the region this year because of heavy rain fall, and called on the Akwa Ibom Government to intensify sensitisation of the citizens to avoid the havoc of flooding.

The environmentalist said the residents should not empty debris into the drainage to avoid blockage.

“We are in the rainy season and we have a lot of forecasts that the rains are going to be heavy this year.

“So, we are not surprised at what we are seeing, but what would be surprising is if we don’t take action to ensure we are not victims of flooding.

“Government and citizens have roles to play. Government has to keep sensitising the citizens on the dangers of flooding and the high rainfall we are expecting this year.

“Citizens have duties to ensure the drains are not blocked. Where there is no drainage, government should build one and ensure that citizens escape harmful impacts of flooding.

“Government and community leaders should ensure that their planning codes identify where people should build houses and where they should not,” he said.

Bassey advised against building houses in flood-prone areas to escape the harmful impacts of flooding.

“If there is water passing through your place you should have a safe distance from that water body before you construct your houses, same thing with other infrastructure.

This way rain and flood will come and they will not cause havoc,” he said.

Another respondent, Mr Umoh Udoh, said that constant flooding and erosion experienced during raining season in many parts of Uyo was man made.

According to him, the problem of flooding and erosion, especially in the capital city, has persisted due to the failure of successive administrations in the state to judiciously follow the drainage master plan of the city.

“There is something that I want us to learn here. Most of the environmental problems we are tackling in the state are man made.

“That is why sensitisation against blocking the drainage with debris is important,” the environmental activist said.

On his part, a resident of Eket, Mr Assam Abia, called on the state government to construct central drainage that would collect water from all the arteries and channel same into the Atlantic Ocean.

Mr Benson Abu, the Managing Director, CAPS Integrated Services, a waste management company in Port Harcourt, attributed the perennial flooding in some parts of the city to poor town planning and waste management.

Abu said some land developers had built on water channels and the situation largely contributed to flooding in the Rivers capital.

He noted that though Port Harcourt metropolis enjoyed some level of town planning benefits, other parts of the city such as Obio/Akpor and Eleme areas lacked proper planning.

The environmentalist urged the state government to consider removing structures situated on water ways to pave way for free flow of water.

“A clear instance of poor structural planning could be seen around NLNG area office in Port Harcourt City Council.

“The area used to be swampy because it served as a temporary storage for water flowing into the river.

“Recently, the state government reclaimed the area and the reclamation of that area clearly lacked adequate environmental impact assessment and this has subjected the area to flooding.

“I visited the Rumudara area recently, and I saw that NDDC had to come to the aid of the residents by pumping out water from those beautiful houses that were already being overtaken by water.

“This could have been averted if there was proper attitude to town planning and construction works,” he stated.

On flooding resulting from poor waste management, Abu urged residents of the state to begin to take responsibility of sanitising the drains as the rains increase.

“Recently, there was the challenge of non-evacuation of waste, leaving Port Harcourt and environs littered with refuse.

“No doubt, this waste has gained access into the drains, blocking them and contributing to flooding currently ravaging parts of the state,” he added.

However, in order to manage the situation, the Rivers Government inaugurated a five-member sanitation taskforce lead by Mr Isobo Jack.

The committee was given the mandate of monitoring to ensure improved sanitation in the state and restoring Port Harcourt to its original “garden city” status.

Isobo has noted that the challenges associated with refuse evacuation in the state are largely due to indiscriminate dumping of refuse on the median of roads and the drains as well as activities of scavengers.

He also noted that some refuse clearing contractors lacked adequate equipment like compactors and other modern machines needed for efficient waste collection and management.

He said that the state government was planning to resume implementation of its ‘waste to wealth’ initiative with the attendant ‘door to door’ refuse collection.

Also, the Director General of Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Princewill Ayim, identified inadequate drainage system and poor waste management as some of the causes of flooding in the state.

Ayim told NAN in Calabar that some areas in the state capital were currently witnessing perennial flooding every rainy season because of inadequate drainage system.

According to him, the agency has presented a plan on the affected areas to the state government for implementation.

He said some of the areas mostly affected included Parliamentary Road, Target by Goldie, Beebobsco Junction, Musaha Street in Calabar South, parts of Federal Housing Estate, among others.

The director general added that another challenge faced by the agency was the issue of poor waste management by some residents in the state.

He said that most residents usually dumped their waste inside the drainage which often blocked it leading to flooding.

“As an agency, we are doing our best to avert cases of flooding in Calabar, but our challenges range from inadequate drainage system in most areas to poor waste management system.

“Periodically, we organise sensitisation programmes in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency in the affected communities to enlighten them on preventive measures,” he said.

Another resident and environmentalist, Mr Peter Ogar, told NAN that some areas in Calabar were suffering from perennial flooding because most of the houses were built on water channels.

Ogar said that most land owners did not seek the approval of relevant government agencies before building, hence the mistake of putting their houses along the water channel.

He advised prospective house owners to always seek approval from the town planning office in the state and engage professionals whenever they wanted to build houses.

In Asaba, Mr Philip Okwuego, the Executive Director of Save A Life Initiative, a non-governmental organisation, urged government to sensitise Delta residents on the need to take up the responsibility of desilting the drains in flood-prone areas.

Okwuego said that desilting and flushing of drainage ahead of rainy season would reduce flooding.

”In areas prone to flooding, we advise residents to be on the alert and vacate the areas when the rains become overwhelming,”Okwuego said.

A resident of Oko community near Asaba, Ugochukwu Akidi, said that illegal constructions on water channels was a major cause of flooding in the area.

“If government fails to clear water ways and allows people to build structures without regulations, flooding wiil occur.

“Government should strengthen regulations and ensure that people build in accordance with approvals.

“It is important that before the rains become heavy, water ways should be cleared so that there will be free flow of water and reduction in flooding incidents,” he said.

On his part, the Edo Commissioner for Environment and Sustainability, Mr Jonathan Lawani, said in Benin that the state had adopted a mult-idimensional approach to solve the problem of flooding.

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As part of the approaches, Lawani said the ministry set up a department strictly for erosion control in the state in line with the state Water Masterplan Programme.

“Edo state has been delineated into sub-catchment areas and that is what we are doing to ensure all drainage system in the state are taken to different rivers for effective evacuation of water system.

“Another way of tackling the problem is through continual desiltation of our drainage system because it is not enough to only have drainage system.

“Once the drainage is blocked by indiscriminate dumping of waste and there is no free flow of water, it will find its way back to the surface and cover our roads.

“We also encourage our people as a way of sensitisation to avoid indiscriminate dumping of waste,” he said.

Contributing, a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Science, Niger Delta University, Yenagoa, Mr Timothy Fukuma, said there was lack of relevant legal and policy frameworks for controlling and managing flooding in Nigeria.

He suggested integration of flood risk management with spatial planning and effective implementation of the policy to avert flooding in parts of Nigeria.

Fakuma said that Nigeria had been more focused on post-disaster flood response than control.

“Reducing and addressing exposure to flood risk is now a national priority in the Nigerian government’s disaster risk management agenda.

“However, nothing concrete has been achieved. This is not encouraging despite the comprehensive post-disaster needs assessment conducted in 2012 by the Federal Government with international collaboration.

‘This raises questions on the political will to achieve this goal,” he said.

(NAN)