Some residents of Ngozika Housing Estate, Awka, Anambra State, have raised alarm over threat to their safety by the perennial flooding which wreaks havoc in the estate. On Monday, parts of the estate were hit by flood following early morning’s rainfall in Awka and its environs.
The downpour surged into the Priest’s House of Sacred Heart Catholic Chaplaincy, Ngozika Housing Estate, Awka; that of St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church; the residence of one Mr. Solomon Ubani, among others.
Some of them who spoke to our reporters (Fides’) , blamed housing developers, whom they alleged to be encroaching on the water channel, as well as government officials, for the cause of the perennial flooding, and appealed to the Anambra State Government to come to their aid in finding a lasting solution to the menace.
One of the residents and Chairman, Ngozika Estate Residents Association, Sir Charles Mbakigwe, said the situation had been in existence since 2012, but the worst happened five years ago at the Priests’ House, with the next one pulling down some buildings.
“In 2017, government did some palliative work on the canal, but it wasn’t quite well done; so after some time, the problem came back; now we’re still living with the problem.
‘To compound it, some developers encroached on the sides of the canal with impunity.
As we tried to stop them, the Estate Officials gave us the impression that they had appropriate authorization to do what they were doing including selling lands close to the drainage way against the original plan of the estate.’
He further noted that in 2022, the Association spent not less than ₦480, 000 on the entrance gate of the estate to evacuate the channel there, because whenever it rained, it became difficult for the policemen guarding them to come out from their office there.
“This is because part of the drainage there was built upon by developers, sometimes in collaboration with some staff of the Housing Corporation,” Mbakigwe stated. They explained that Peter Obi’s Administration came up with a particular design which Willie Obiano’s Government tried in 2017 to execute but left it uncompleted due to lack of political will.
The residents appealed to the state government to help the Anambra State Housing Development Corporation, ASHDC, to look into the water channel with a view to widening it, and also called land excavators in the area to order and demolish whatever that was along the water way to allow the flood flow into the Ezu River.
In his response, the Chaplain of Sacred Heart Parish, Rev Fr Chigozie Jidere, said the church always got over flooded any moment it rained. The Chaplain therefore, urged the government to act quickly to distil the water channel so that whenever it rained heavily, the volume of flood could be contained.
A worshipper at St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Rock Land, Ngozika Estate, who pleaded anonymity, described the flood situation in the estate as frightening. ‘The whole situation gives me sleepless nights. Once there is rain I cannot sleep again, I become afraid and restless,’ she said.
She explained that the cause of the flood was that the canal was no longer deep and needed to be cleared of all blockages. Another resident, Mr Ubani, whose compound was still soaked with water at the time of the visit to the area, described the situation as horrible, pointing out that during every rainy season the residents became apprehensive of what they would face as regards flood.
However, another resident, Dr Nkiru Akabuike, who expressed hope that the state government would soon respond to the calls of the residents, also called on the Federal Government to intervene in the situation, arguing that it was a natural disaster that could cost huge amount of money to tackle.
When contacted, the Managing Director of ASHDC, Mr Chike Anyaonu, said the corporation had been trying to find a lasting solution to the flood menace.
Mr Anyaonu, who spoke with Fides through the phone, said the problem was not a matter that started today but had been there for long.
‘The corporation is so much concerned about the situation; we have been trying to profile what can be done to bring a lasting solution to the problem.
‘The governor recently gave a directive after several appeals. We were directed to meet with the Commissioner for Works and we have been visiting the site also with the commissioner. ‘Another one is that recently, the people in charge of erosion in Anambra State were involved- They are doing their own beat because the problem is not one the Anambra State Housing Corporation can handle alone. This is because that canal belongs to the state.
That is the reason why the state is involved,’ Anyaonu said. He posited that the agency in charge of watershed and erosion control was doing its best and studying the velocity of the damage caused by the erosion in order to come up with a lasting solution.