Umuaka flood: Akalites point out possible causes.
2 min read
Following the flooding that ravaged some parts of Umuaka community last week, many Akalites have been thinking and trying to establish the root causes of the flood menace. From what Umuaka Times gathered last week from some stakeholders the possible causes of the flood disaster may most likely be man-made.
Prominent among the Akalites who expressed their views at several whatsapp for a last week was Mr Okey Mba, a legal practitioner and youth activist. In a message he sent to Umuaka Times at the heat of the discussions concerning the flood mayhem, the attorney pointed three major factors as the possible causes of the flood:
1. Climate change leading to extremes in weather patterns…. severe rains/flooding and severe sunshine, heat waves and drought etc;
2. Blocking of natural water ways as a result of unplanned man-made structures;
3. Blocking and closing of water pits (omi) dug by our forefathers as receptacles for excess rain water by various communities and villages in the mistaken notion of modernity by the current generation.
Barrister Mba called upon villages to consider the reintroduction of traditional water tanks known as omi in the local parlance.
The former chairman of Njaba LGA Hon Bon Nnaka in his own presentation ultimately blamed the Craneburg Construction Company, the civic engineering firm that handled the renovation of the Orlu Owerri Express Road project for a job not properly done. Writing in one of the whatsapp groups in the community, Hon Bon Nnaka wrote, “…look at way they channeled water from Orodo to Afor Umuaka, instead of moving the flood to connect the former gutter at the old timber market to Njaba, they left at A-Line and Uba Road junction, making the whole of Ndiuhu Achara residents, Ndiuhu Uba and Obinwanne people to suffer. Central School Umuaka has been taken over by that danger with our children still schooling there.”
Many other Akalites who spoke with Umuaka Times last week wondered why Craneburg would abandon the gutter project within the Afor Umuaka axis only to continue it from old timber market side. This in the views of many people led to the flood danger.
US based Akalite Dr Marshall Madu last week called for the construction firm to complete its work on the drainage system. He also appealed to the state government to acquire a plot of land where borrow pit will be dug to absorb the whole water coming from Amandugba, Umundugba, Amurie, Ekwe and Obinwanne. This in his views will prevent such an ugly flood reality again.
