A’Ibom Flood Control Projects Consumed N50bn in Seven Years

Okon Bassey in Uyo

Akwa Ibom State Government has expended about N50 billion on flood control projects in the state in the last seven years, the state Commissioner for Environment and Solid Minerals, Mr. Charles Udoh, has disclosed.

Speaking with journalists in Uyo at  the weekend, the commissioner hinted that the N14 billion IBB Way World Bank assisted major flood control project in Uyo, the state capital, would be put into use at the end of the month.

This, he said, would bring to an end years of frustration and anxiety from residents over the growing menace of flooding in the state capital.

He said some of the major flood control projects in the state include those on IBB Way, Etim Umana Street, Ikpa Road, Anua in Uyo, and several others across the state.

Udoh, however, blamed constant rain for the delay in the timely completion and delivery of many of the erosion control projects in the state.

Besides the rains, the Commissioner listed other secondary issues such as activities of vandals and the attitude of some residents on the compensation payment that slowed down the pace of work, especially on the IBB Way flood control project, which has exceeded its completion period by six months.

He said: “If you recount almost eight months ago last year, work was stalled because of rain, and we had a very unusual amount of rainfall, and once there are rain falls, there is hardly any significant thing you can do on these project sites, especially earth works, because once the soil is moisturised you can’t compact, that is why the work hasn’t been done.

“Rain has been a major challenge because anytime it rains it takes us about three days to recover. Another issue is the attitude of people. For instance, a gentleman collected compensation fee on his asset and goes behind to petition the state government to World Bank that we didn’t pay him, and unfortunately for him, he thought that we were not aware.

“What we do in compensation is that if we are paying you, we will do evaluation- an international standard evaluation with a consultant too-your village head, chairman of the village council, youth leader among others will confirm your ownership of the asset and they will be present before giving you the compensation, even as we take pictures too.

“So this gentleman goes round saying that we didn’t pay him. Of course, the World Bank knows how to settle such matters, but for me it heartbreaking because this gentleman’s house was perpetually under the water and we were coming to help take him out of his misery, but he is there trying to frustrate us. At least he is not the only one who has done this; there are many of them who do these things because of selfish interest.”

 The commissioner, however, expressed joy  that despite the hiccups, work has reached 95 percent completion with the drain works.

“Now we are almost 95 percent done with the main drain; we have completed the alignment from state secretariat, what is remaining is to join it with the one at  Atiku Abubakar Avenue,” he said.

“We are just trying to be a bit fast because the World Bank granted us one month extension, so we are just working day and night to beat the deadline.

“The World Bank window was closed in May, so as it stands now, all the works need to be done on or before the end of June, even if the work is not completely done but at least before the end of June, water must be able to move from IBB to a the outfall comfortably,” Udoh maintained.