Flood: 1000 Houses Built On Waterways In Borno | Tellwell Newspaper
Tellwell Newspaper, Abuja – Nigeria:
As massive floods continue wreaking monumental havoc across most of the states of the country this rainy season, one of the major causes of the recurring deluge in Borno State has been identified.
Over 1000 houses have been illegally built on water channels, forcing water to inundate locations and force its way through communities, destroying hundreds of houses across flood-prone local government areas.
Governor Babagana Umara Zulum expressed this complaint on Tuesday after assessing a flood-ravaged vegetable market at Moro Moro, a community around Customs in Maiduguri.
He said the State Government would provide temporary measures for now, but after the rainy season, there would be need for permanent measures that may require resettling shelters currently located on water ways, after coming with a consultative approach.
He fell short of warning that all structures erected on waterways, blocking free flow of water and, therefore, causing flood, would be demolished.
Worried by the destructions across the state, Zulum assigned his Deputy, Umar Usman Kadafur, to lead an assessment team to a tour of all the affected Local Government Areas to ascertain the extent of damages, and to support victims.
He commiserated with flood victims across the State.
It can be recalled, last July, visited communities affected by flooding in Damboa and offered them support.
Zulum, two weeks ago, also sent out a Committee headed by Barrister Kaka Shehu Lawan, APC’s candidate for Borno Central Senatorial election in 2023, and former Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, who had overseen Borno’s Ministry of Environment at different occasions, hence familiar with matters of flooding and controlling it.
Lawan’s Committee was at some communities affected by flooding in Maiduguri to assess damages.
Governor Zulum, in 2019, established the Borno State Geographic Information System and enhanced the capacity of the State Urban Planning and Development Board which works with relevant Ministries to among other things, take measures aimed at addressing the perennial flooding across the State, especially in Maiduguri, which is the most populated with the highest number of residential houses.
The establishments have been putting measures which have so far reduced flooding in some communities.
