The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has enjoined the Oyo State Government to be decisive in tackling age-long perennial flooding in the ancient city of Ibadan by removing all risk factors that aid the disasters yearly.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has enjoined the Oyo State Government to be decisive in tackling age-long perennial flooding in the ancient city of Ibadan by removing all risk factors that aid the disasters yearly.
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The Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Muhammad Sani-Sidi, made the call in a speech at the Flood Prevention and Mitigation Workshop organized by the Agency in Ibadan on Tuesday. He pointed out that erection of structures in flood plains and obstruction of natural paths of rain water are the lead factors of flooding in Ibadan.
The Director General, who was represented by the South West Assistant Coordinator of the Agency, Babatunde Adebiyi, acknowledged the efforts of the State Government at reconstruction and rehabilitations of canals, extension of drainages and bridges. While acknowledging the capital-intensive measures taken so far, he said that building people’s resilience against identifiable disaster risks is the best legacy that a leader can bequeath to his people.
According to Sani-Sidi, “That disaster resilient people can conveniently tackle poverty that forces them to resort in looking for cheaper land at flood plains and the risks of losses during disasters which can never be recovered can be eliminated with flourishing economic and social development as immediate outcome of government investment while government would have more focus toward stability and virile environment to developmental programmes without the fear of disaster sweeping off the gains of government efforts.”
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The NEMA boss therefore called on the government to take decisive steps to remove the over 26,000 structures that are a major strain in flood-free environment in the state.
Praising the public sensitization and awareness campaigns of the state government, he appealed that such measure should be extended to Local Government and ward levels, as disasters occur at the community levels and reaching the people at the grassroots are would go a long way in building people’s resilience. He enjoined the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to replicate the workshop at the state level.
Speaking in the same vein, the Guest Speaker, Dr. Bolanle Wahab, warned that the perennial flooding in the state capital, Ibadan, will not stop until the government and residents do their part in controlling it.
Wahab, a lecturer in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Ibadan, linked some of the causes of the floods in the country to lack of political will.
He explained that the residents of the state had a major role to play in ensuring that human activities, which are responsible for the flooding, are stopped.
He said, “Ibadan is not a planned city. It does not have a blueprint directing its growth. The city is just spreading in all directions without any control.”
Pointing out some of the regulations, Dr. Wahab said, “Residents are not supposed to develop more than 50 per cent of their plots. The undeveloped part should be planted with shrub and grass to allow percolation of water. This is one of the major ways floods can be prevented.”
Ibrahim Farinloye
NEMA South West Zone, Lagos
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