Many homeless, properties destroyed following Ilorin flood

“Modernity is not being accompanied by any sense of responsibility among our people and the government,” is how a resident of Odo’ta in the Ilorin South local government area of the Ilorin emirate in Kwara State captured the cause of the recent flooding in the area. This sad reality seems to be the dilemma of many areas across the country during the rainy season. The calamity that is triggered by the flooding that accompanies the rainy season is better imagined than experienced. For many who have been victims of such flooding, the after-effects of the menace have not always been met with government’s quick interventions. There have been calls and repeated pleas for better urban management across the various layouts of both residential and industrial areas.

When the immediate past government in the state embarked on the construction of Geri Alimi diamond underpass for a whopping sum of about N5 billion, it was with the sole intent of making life easier for citizens, among other reasons. However, some noticeable inconveniences being caused by the multimillion naira project have become a source of concern for residents of the Ilorin metropolis. This has resulted in protracted complaints and unwholesome consequences.

For instance, gutters/drainage from various adjoining streets in areas like Atanda street, Sakasaka, among others at Odota community have not been linked with drainage on the sides of the newly commissioned dual carriageway, thereby leading to prevalent flood disasters in such communities.

One of such occurrences was last Monday’s downpour at Odo’ta which lasted over three hours resulting in flooding. It was gathered that properties worth several millions of naira were damaged while over 1,000 residents of the area were rendered homeless.

It was also gathered that flood victims in the affected areas, who included traders, were on Tuesday busy salvaging their damaged belongings from the catastrophe. The residents said that many of them, including children and the aged had moved to their neighbours’ houses that were not badly affected, to seek refuge.

Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune, Toyin Maseke and Murtala Abdulrahman, who owned mechanic workshops at the entrance to Atanda Street, Odo’ta said that they had incurred losses on several vehicles in their workshops due to incessant flooding in the area.

“The brain boxes of most of the cars get damaged due to flooding every time here. We are not happy. We want the government and all the relevant agencies to do something drastic in arresting the situation. It is a terrible situation and we must not allow things to continue like this.

“At a point in time, we made a hole in the drainage wall of the expressway to allow heavy flood from the street to enter the drainage, but it was not effective as the drainage on the expressway was too high for water to enter through. So, the water entered our shops and other houses around. The cost of this hardship is taking a toll on all of us. We are worried and this has affected many lives.

“With the flood in our shops and other houses, we made a hole at a nearby building to make the water enter the drainage through another different way, but just yesterday, the occupants of the houses blocked it and made a brick wall to prevent water from coming through their house. The fear is that we don’t know how the water would flow when it rains again. It means another flood,” he said.

The monumental damage noticed and felt has always been attributed to lack of proper planning at all levels. While residents have always blamed government for its lack of infrastructural development in curtailing the repeated flooding, government however has insisted that attention to regulations in urban planning and management has always been flouted by residents. Equally, the financial implication of flooding have always been felt especially in the losses recorded.

Also speaking, Murtala Abdulrahman said that several meetings with the contractor that handled the construction of the underpass and letters to the Ministry of Works yielded no positive result till the project was commissioned in May.

Speaking on the incident, the chairman of the landlords’ association in the affected areas, Alhaji Yahaya Olowo-Beki attributed the flooding to lack of drainage after the completion of the Geri Alimi underpass. He said the flooding had become a constant occurrence in the area since the completion of the underpass.

Olowo-Beki appealed to the Kwara State government to provide drainage at the sides of the underpass to curb the constant flooding in the area.

It was also gathered that the whole stretch of Atanda Street had no drainage on either side of the street, thus, causing the flood to flow to the main road. However, there was no way for water coming from the street to enter the main express road, thereby leading to prevalent flood disasters in the area.

When contacted, the Permanent Secretary, Kwara State Ministry of Environment, Alhaji Al-Amin Amasa, said the flooding was caused by lack of proper layout in the affected areas. He noted that the residents’ failure to create waterways while building their houses gave room for flooding.

In their work, Nkwunonwo U.C. of the Department of Geoinformatics and Surveying, University of Nigeria, Enugu campus, Nigeria; Whitworth Malcolm of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, UK and Baily Brian of the Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth, UK, argue that “in Nigeria, flooding and means of addressing its challenges are critical issues.” Evidently, the country has experienced devastating floods which affected millions of people and caused fiscal losses amounting to billions of US dollars. These hazards were generally linked to poor urban planning and climate change especially in increased frequency and intensity of rainfall.

“The impacts of flooding in Nigeria include mortality, physical injuries, widespread infection and vector-borne diseases, social disorders, homelessness, food insecurity, economic losses (mainly through destruction of farmlands, social and urban infrastructure) and economic disruption (most notably in oil exploration in the Niger delta, traffic congestion in many cities in Nigeria, disruption in telecommunication and power supply). Nigeria is globally ranked with the top 20 countries whose present population and future scenarios in the 2070s (including climate change and socio-economic factors) are exposed to coastal flooding.”

While residents of Ilorin groan over their losses, it is hoped that the needful would be done.