Uyo Residents Lament Lack of Basic Amenities, Unplanned Environment
Okon Bassey in Uyo
Some residents of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, have expressed concern that the city has remained largely unplanned, lacking basic amenities like public water supply, an efficient transport system and tarred streets.
With its fast growing into a megacity, it was observed that the city is prone to flooding whenever there is heavy rain while people are at the risk of losing their property as a result of the perennial flooding.
They said the recent incident, which happened at Urua Ekpa Road within the metropolis, has exposed the nature of Uyo’s inner streets and homes.
The Urua Ekpa’s scenario was said to have struck people as houses, shops, and streets were flooded with people scooping water from their business premises, even the University of Uyo Town Campus and Annex were not left out.
Streets like John Udo Akpan; Michael Udofia Word Bride Avenue, Off School Road, and others reportedly make Uyo look like a rural community looking unpaved and filthy.
About two years since Governor Umo Eno assumed office, Uyo is not still witnessing any meaningful transformation and it was with much outcry by civil society groups that potholes on the major roads were filled recently while a lot still remains to be done.
A resident of Uyo, Mr Aniekan Uwa, said he never believed Uyo could remain as a rural area despite being the state capital.
He lamented that the streets are not paved, and many suburbs do not have good roads adding that houses are built with one in front of the other, with no space for a car park.
Another resident, Nelson Etuk, said the state can be better pointing out that Governor Eno’s focus is on rural areas and human empowerment.
Etuk noted that most rural communities in the state did not have access roads until Eno started fixing them after he became the governor. He added, however, that development in rural areas was no excuse for Eno not to develop Uyo, the state capital .
Dean, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Uyo, Professor Anthony Ujene, blamed Nigerians for contributing to the filthiness of the inner cities by discarding water sachets and plastic/bottle water containers indiscriminately .
“We keep drinking sachet water, throwing away the sachet without knowing where the waste is going.
“The government, too, does not provide a wastebasket where people will drop their waste. There is no monitoring mechanism to check where waste is being dumped.”
“There are places where you don’t drop common things like a sweet pack on the road, and if you do, somebody will ask you to pick it up at once. As humans, we have our problems.”
“There is a state agency which is in charge of all these disposals. Sometimes you see them opening all these gutters without covering them. The filth, like sachets, polythene bags, papers, or other wastes, will go into the drain, and the drain will get blocked: this usually results in flooding.”
“This is about policy implementation and enforcement. There is no penalty for those who dump refuse anywhere they like. It is a national problem, both to the government and the governed.”
“If you go to any universities, you will see projects on environmental topics fill the shelves, but the government does not feel impelled to execute anyone of them. Here, we are not the people to implement or enforce these things; our duty is to teach them.”
Reacting to the absence of good roads within the state capital, the Commissioner for Works, Prof Eno Ibanga, said no city can attain full development process at a stretch.
He argued that all other cities around the world underwent gradual development until they are fully developed.
According to him, the Akwa Ibom State government is doing everything possible to ensure that most of these streets or areas are developed soon.
“Developing a city is a gradual process. No city has been built at once, and at the time, we shall shift attention from the major work we are doing to fix these streets and some minor roads soon,” he stated.
