Floods: Residents demand proactive efforts from government, relevant agencies
Residents of Osogbo, Osun State have called on the state government, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Osun State Emergency Management Agency (OSEMA) and relevant agencies to prevent another flooding in the state.
This is given the recent warning issued by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) to Southern states to expect high-intensity rainfall and riverine flooding in the remaining days of the rainy season.
The NiMet Director General, Professor Mansur Bako Matazu made this know in Abuja on Tuesday while speaking at a workshop organised by the agency in collaboration with the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency (NIHSA) on Hydro-meteorological status and outlook system (HydroSOS).
A landlord, Kayode Simeon chatting with Newsmen stated the call became necessary following the flooding that occurred in 2021 in some parts of the state capital in August and October and other parts of the state.
In his words, “The thing about floods is that the scale becomes bigger and larger as the years roll by. It may occur in a small way now and if not properly managed, the scale may increase the next time and the devastation may be too much to manage by then.
“I was made to understand that the rate of rainfall is increasing and this is the real issue.”
Oyewole Matthew on his own noted that the problem of flooding associated with rainfall is not new in Osogbo.
He recollected that in 2010, half of Osogbo was affected by a flood which repeated itself again in 2019.
“In 2010, the flooding that affected the capital Osogbo came with attendant loss of lives and properties. The state government of Rauf Aregbesola in 2011 had to declare an environmental state of emergency to the problem.
“In 2019, parts of the state capital experienced flooding which damaged lots of properties but no life was lost.
“The state government swung into action but the flood repeated itself again in 2021. We just woke up after that heavy rainfall in August and behold most of Osogbo was flooded.
“In October, it repeated itself but this time around not only in Osogbo but mostly in Ilesa town. The government went into action and dredged most rivers in the state.”
He called on the government not to wait until things get out of hand before they take action.
“We must not deceive ourselves. It is not certain that Osogbo is flood-prone and the warning of NiMet warns that rainfall will affect southern states again this year like in 2021. They warned in 2021 and it came to pass. They are wanting again in 2022, we must do all to avert disaster.
“It is no longer news that Kogi and Anambra states are suffering and I heard in the news that about 500 souls have perished due to the recent floods that have overtaken both states. Before such will befall us in Osun, the government should act fast!”
A house owner, Oluwaseun Babatunde stated that he and his family had to relocate from their house temporarily due to the flood.
“You see, we never knew where we built our house was flood-prone. In fact, some years earlier, it was totally safe. So we bought and developed the land until disaster struck. We had to move the little we could salvage out of the house when flood waters suddenly rushed in and disrupted our sleep in the middle of the night.”
The Osun State Commissioner for Environment, Olusola Oladepo was not available for comment on the subject matter as messages sent to him were not responded to.
