While night rains provide the soothing comfort needed for sound sleep, such rains are always a source of dread for residents and property owners along St John Street, Ifite-Awka, Anambra State Capital, due to the heavy flooding they experience.
A torrential rainfall earlier this week inundated homesteads and public compounds, collapsed structures, and destroyed goods and documents valued at hundreds of millions of Naira, as the occupants counted their losses.
A visit to the area on Tuesday evening by our correspondent revealed anguish, as the residents were seen carting away property and other valuables destroyed by the floodwater.
One such facility affected by the flood was the Headquarters of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Ifite-Awka, where the entire compound and church building were submerged.
Among the items destroyed were musical equipment such as a piano and a music amplifier, as well as church documents and other records.
The District Overseer of the Church, Reverend Sam Ufo, who spoke to newsmen, regretted that although the flooding of the compound was an annual occurrence, the magnitude of Monday night’s flooding had never been witnessed since they came to the area.
He revealed that the church was among the first to develop property in the area and had adopted the appropriate design, but regretted that subsequent property owners had adopted designs that had created the flood challenge.
The clergyman accused some property owners in the nearby street of building on waterways designed to collect and discharge floodwater in the area at a nearby canal, noting that since the developments, the area has never ceased to experience flooding.
“We were about the first set of people that developed in this area, and we didn’t envisage this kind of flood challenge. When other people started developing, they were laying the foundation, which is why every time it rained, our compound would be flooded.
“We, however, raised and fortified our fences to stop the rains from coming into the compound. But the rains last night pulled down the fences, and even our neighbors, the Redeemed Christian Mission, forced a huge flood into our premises.
“We have also identified that the cause of the perennial flood is the blocked drainage system that collects flood water and discharges it at a nearby canal. Some developers bought the waterways, blocked them and built on them, causing the flooding,” he said.
Reverend Ufo appealed to the state and local government authorities to intervene and recover the original waterway, which takes water down to the canal, expressing the fear that the problem will be worse if the government does not prevail on the landlords to remove their structures that are blocking the waterways.
The Chairman of the Street, Uzochukwu Umejiege, lamented that the area usually experiences such challenges during rainy seasons, noting that many houses have lost valuables, and that, with the way it is going, it may lead to loss of life if not checked.
“Farmlands were destroyed, homes were displaced, household items were destroyed, shops were flooded, and goods were destroyed.
“A major reason for this challenge is due to the topography of the area. Our street is usually the worst hit by the flood because it is at the end of the slope.
“We need the government to help us construct a bigger drainage system that will collect water coming from other parts of this Ifite-Awka, so that we are not always at the receiving end,” he pleaded.
For Daniel Nwokolo, a tenant in one of the buildings that were submerged by flood, the challenge is man-made and can be addressed, if only the development control authorities sit up to their responsibilities.
He said, “I have lived here since 2017, and we have not witnessed this kind of flood. And it was caused by the blockage of the drainage.
The water is coming from the Old Government House, Second Market, and Green House. The gutter here is not 2 feet, which is not enough to contain the volume of floodwater coming into this area.
We need the government to construct drainage systems large enough to handle the volume of floodwater coming here.
“Government should also intensify enforcement and monitoring of development activities to ensure that they conform with the standards and that developers do not undertake actions that will cause problems for co-dwellers in the future.”
