Issues That Matter With Isaac Ologbosere: The Perils Of Flooding In Edo State

The rainy season began this year as expected, but has left many wishing that it never happened. In the past few months, there have been occasions where Edo state has witnessed excessive rainfall due to the rainy season. In different parts of the state, citizens experienced flooding in their locality due to the excessive rainfall. However, some others like farmers who need the rain would be happy about the heavy downpour which has left their crops watered and the soil softer for easy harvest.

Nonetheless, there are others who are grieved as the rain has caused a lot of “troubles” for them. Several cases of flooding in the state has since been recorded, and this has left a lot of Edo state citizens in anguish, frustration and agony. The heavy down pour has led to flooding especially due to poor drainage systems in the state.

Flooding in Edo State is an issue that should be tackled immediately and should be treated with utmost concern because this problem has been repeated over the years and has left a lot of Edo state citizens destitute and confused on what next to do.

Permit me to discuss some of the effects of flooding in Edo state. To begin with, flooding in the state has led to the problem of traffic jam. This happens as a result of blockade on the road caused by excessive water huddled up on the road thereby making cars find it difficult to ply the road. The waters serve as hindrances to the free flow of vehicular movement on the road, thereby causing the vehicles to move at snail speed. In so doing, vehicles are seen endlessly lined up on the road for hours until a safe passage is discovered. In this case, the motorists apply caution when driving, because the water huddled up on the road may be covering a pot hole that is not visible to the motorists, and if they should drive into these "death traps" they would live to regret it.

In addition, flooding in the state has led to the problem of wearing away or destruction of our roads. Whenever excessive water is huddled up in any part of the road, it leads to that part of the road having a hole which is referred to as “pot hole” and this is not good for the motorists using the road.

These waters on the road tend to eat up or wear out the materials used in constructing the road thereby causing it to have pot holes. When these waters do not have an effective channel to flow through, it tends to remain on the roads for a long time and when this is done repeatedly, there is bound to be pot holes, leaving motorists with the problem of avoiding these potholes while driving.

Above all, flooding in the state has led to the problem of citizens abandoning their homes due to the encroachment of water caused by excessive rainfall into their homes during the rainy season. This is likely to happen when there is no effective channel for the water to flow through into the drainage that has been prepared for it, or when that channel is not wide enough to accommodate the water flowing through it. After the rainfall, instead of these waters to flow through the gutters into the drainage, they flow into people's homes, thereby destroying a lot of properties and in some cases, properties worth millions of naira. When the gutters are not wide enough to contain the water, this is what is most likely to happen and then, the residents are forced to abandon their homes in fear that this may happen again in the next rainy season.

In conclusion, there should be adequate measures that should be enforced by the government in tackling this issue of flooding in the state because it has been a serious matter of concern especially during rainy seasons. The state government should provide wide gutters that would be capable of channeling these waters to the drainages so that they would not be left on the road or flow into people's homes.

The government should also sensitize the citizens on how to build houses and the locations to build houses in order to avoid the issue if their homes being filled with flood during the rainy season. If these measures are adopted, there would be a decrease in the cases of flooding in the state.

 

 Isaac Ologbosere, Benin City, Edo state. 08128362829.

 

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