The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) don start to remove sand, mud and other dirt from drainage channels along Airport Road and other parts of Abuja after heavy rain wey fall two days ago cause flash floods for some areas of the city.
The Acting Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Mr Richard Dauda, disclose this during inspection tour on Thursday.
Dauda said weather forecasters don already predict say heavy rainfall go happen this year.
“The weather forecast had already shown that rainfalls will be heavy this year.”
He also said FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had earlier spoken about the effect of climate change, noting that the heavy rain brought flash floods.
“There was the torrential rainfall that came with some flash floods.”
According to Dauda, Abuja’s Master Plan already recognise that some parts of the city fit experience flooding because of the location of the capital.
“Because of the location of the city, it is evident even from the Master Plan that we will have some flash floods.”
He said government don provide resilient infrastructure to help manage flooding, describing Airport Road as “a good infrastructure.” However, he explained say the drainage channels along the road don become blocked with sand and dirt over time.
Dauda said the desilting work don already start based on the minister’s directive.
“So that when the rains fall again, we won’t have a similar experience.”
He blamed part of the blockage on residents wey dey dump refuse inside drainage channels. He said rainwater dey carry the waste into the drains, where large objects fit block the outlets.
“When rain falls, it washes them down, and in some cases, you see large objects. These large objects, when they get to the outlets, they block it.”
He added that once the outlets are blocked and sand enters the drainage system, the facility can no longer work properly.
“The drainage facility is no longer able to function the way it should.”
Dauda appealed to Abuja residents to stop dumping refuse inside waterways, saying human activities na one of the factors contributing to flash floods in the city.
He also pointed to a stream from Galadima Roundabout, which crosses the Airport Expressway through a triple-cell box culvert measuring three metres by three metres. According to him, the channel carries “a large volume of water” whenever rain falls.
He explained that a developer had narrowed the waterway downstream by building retaining walls in an attempt to acquire more land.
“Now, what that causes is that the volume of water that ought to pass no longer passes. This causes detention and backflow, and eventually, it overflows. Then we get flooding.”
Dauda said the structure needs to be removed so that enough water fit pass through the channel and restore its proper width.
Speaking about vandalised gully covers, Dauda said the covers are designed to prevent debris from entering drainage channels, but some people don steal them in different locations.
“When vandals steal this, I wonder if they are still Nigerian citizens, because if they actually do pay tax, they will know that part of their contribution is there. So, it’s like stealing from yourself.”
He said FCDA dey consider replacing the stolen covers with materials wey people no fit easily recycle, instead of steel and cast iron, to discourage further theft and reduce the amount of debris entering the drainage system.
Dauda said the minister had also directed relevant agencies across the FCT to begin desilting work across the city. The exercise covers trapezoidal drains, U-shaped channels along roads and culverts, while new drainage infrastructure go dey constructed where necessary.
He said the inspection was to assess the extent of the flooding and check the desilting work already ordered by the minister.
Dauda added that work was already ongoing on trapezoidal drains along the expressway, with attention to also cover affected drainage outlets along Airport Road.
