Ogun govt warns residents against blocking water channels

A flooded Nigerian community

The Ogun State government has warned residents to shun activities that could impede the free flow of water.

The government also claimed that if not for the quality of work done on the roads by the Dapo Abiodun-led administration, the ravaging flood would have sacked many homes in the state.  

A statement by the state commissioner for infrastructure, Engr Ade Akinsanya, said a bridge constructed by the state government stalled the impact of the flood.

“Channels of water had been blocked by houses, thus raising the level of the flood. Waterways were blocked but water will always find its level and, definitely, there is no asphalt that water cannot wash away if its volume is heavy.

“People should therefore dispose their wastes carefully and not invite flood. Those who took advantage of the long bamboos by the canal and filled it with the bamboos should be careful,” he said,

The statement added that the government was already looking at the possibility of providing durable drainage by extending the ongoing construction work on the Panseke-Adigbe road to reach the popular Opako Bridge along Obada road.

This, it said, would put a permanent stop to the perennial destruction of the retaining walls on the busy bridge, due to the lack of proper drainage.

The government alleged that the original Panseke-Adigbe road project was started but abandoned by the immediate past government.

It added that extending drainage to the bridge would enhance proper flow and channeling of water, especially during the rains which have currently destroyed the approach to the bridge, even as the bridge itself remains intact.

As at Saturday afternoon, engineers were at the bridge with excavators to put washed-off materials back in place so that the road may become motorable, pending the time when drainage work reaches the site.

While noting that flood is a natural phenomenon due to rapid urbanization impeding waterways, the statement appealed to road users and residents to cooperate with the engineers on site while they carried out their duties in reasonable time

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