From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Inhabitants of Aba, the second largest commercial city, east of the Niger, are in desperate need of succour following heavy flooding that has caused hardship to them.
Some lives have been lost, while property and other valuables were also destroyed. Experts said it may have been caused majorly by blocked drainages and poor road network.
Residents seem to have embraced the survival of the fittest philosophy. Many of them have also decided not to be deterred by the frequent downpour these days, hence they acquired rubber shoes and slippers to wade through the flooded streets and access roads traversing the town as they eke a living.
About 80 per cent of major roads in the Enyimba City are usually flooded whenever it rains, thereby making residents who leave their homes for other locations to suffer adversely in finding their way home.
On assumption of office in May 2015, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu promised to tackle Aba roads and flood problems and even began with clearing of buildings and other structures found to have blocked drainage channels, to make them ready for construction work.
Some of the roads, like Iberre in Ngwa Road area, Brass Street/Faulks Road, leading to the famous Ariaria International Market, up to Ukwu Mango on the Enugu/Port Harcourt expressway, and Old Expressroad, were mapped out and bulldozers set out to demolish identified illegal and obstructive structures.
There was information that the administration had obtained a grant of about $56.7 million to tackle the bad roads and poor drainage infrastructure in Aba, including the infamous Ndiegoro flooding, channelling of floodwater from Uratta, Port Harcourt Road, Ngwa Road, Obohia and Ohanku roads into the Aba River.
The contracts were actually awarded to construction firms after the necessary preliminary documentation, to ensure that the roads were realised before the coming of this year’s rainy season.
Although some of the roads, especially Ngwa Road, have been completed from the Asa Triangle to the Orji Uzor Kalu (Waterside) Bridge end, joining Emelogu Street in Ogbor Hill, others are yet to be done and have been assumed by residents as abandoned. This was despite the various promises and assurances from government officials that the roads would be completed and opened for public use before the rainy season.
Residents along Ohanku, Obohia, Uratta, Omuma and Port Harcourt roads wallow in dirty, smelly floodwater to get to their homes at the end of the day’s activities, as they seem to have given up hope that government or anyone in elective office would come to their assistance in fixing the roads.
Those who spoke to Daily Sun, including transport operators, said they were overstretched due to suffering and problems encountered daily in trying to make ends meet.
A leader of the transport union operating along Ohanku-Iheorji-Owerreaba route, Chief Goddy Ihekwoaba, said any money they realiaed, especially whenever it rained, was ploughed back in repairing the vehicles to enable them be in good stead for continued service.
He said they were running their transport business at a loss due to the very bad state of Ohanku Road. The road had been abandoned midway into its construction by its handlers, leaving the four-kilometre stretch worse than it was before the beginning of work on it.
Commuters plying the road to their businesses inside the city centre and those with shops and stores in the various markets located outside the area recounted their woes. They noted that many of them have lost relations and property as well as suffered bodily harm during heavy rains due to lack of good roads and drainage linking the area to other parts of town.
A commercial tricycle operator recalled the death of one of their members living within the flooded Amucha/ECN area, who was electrocuted when he mistakenly handled a livewire pulled down by rainstorm as he tried to wade through the Ohanku/Ndiegoro flood disaster area into his house, which was nearby.
In addition, Faulks Road, the long stretch adjoining Brass Street on to the Aba/Owerri Road and leading to Ariaria International Market, is always flooded whenever it rains. The road, according to Daily Sun’s findings, has been a great headache to government, which allegedly released N6 billion to its handlers as mobilisation fees at the beginning of work, but it is yet to see any positive impact towards its realisation.
Commuters who use the road to Ariaria Market complain daily of reaching their shops and clients late in the market, after several hours by bus and keke plying alternative alleyway routes with less flooding and potholes.
A community leader and trader in the market, Chief Festus Igbokwe, said he and his colleagues have resorted to taking their fate in their hands, as they carry out their daily business in floodwater.
Igbokwe said efforts by the market traders’ associations, including some concerned elders of Aba, have met with repeated failure as they have contributed cash personally and collectively to assist government in handling the issues of flooding and construction of access roads within and outside the market area.
Mrs. Gloria Ilechukwu, a woman leader in the market, corroborated Igbokwe’s position. She said they were delighted when the present administration invited them to a meeting on how to check flooding in the markets and requested that the traders should contribute money for the reconstruction of access roads, which they did.
She, however, expressed sadness that, after seven years, the administration had done nothing concrete in finding a lasting solution to the perennial infrastructure problems in Aba.
Other parts of the town where flood causes devastation include the Ogbor Hill Waterside/Omoba Road area, where floodwater from the Seven-Up/SDA axis, two weeks ago, swept away a 10-year-old boy returning from a church service into the Aba River. Divers eventually picked his lifeless remains the following day.
Flood also wreaked havoc along East Street/River Layout, with the caving in of part of the road and a hotel’s fence nearby. The road, which had a similar problem last year and was repaired by the state government, is very close to the former site of the Ogbor Hill Waterside Market, otherwise known as Ahia Udele. Many people perished in a container trailer accident that led to the closure of the market early this year.
Chairman of Aba South Traditional Rulers’ Council, Eze Ibe Enyeazu, appealed to local and state government authorities and the contractors handling the projects in various locations in the town to engage in providing palliative measures to help the people survive the scourge.
He also called on the contractors to return to site as soon as the rains subside, stressing that the roads involved were major access roads leading into densely populated locations in the commercial city, and, therefore, should not be abandoned.
Enyeazu said: “I met with the contractors when they were on site and complained, but was assured they would meet the target before the rains.
“Now, it seems they have abandoned the work, leaving the road worse than it was in previous years.”
John Chukwueke, a welder along Ohabiam, Port Harcourt Road, said business has been very bad with no customers approaching his shop due to lack of access road.
“We only come out to sweep and open the shop but no business is done because customers can’t access the flooded road to reach us. We have lost our means of livelihood due to the state of the roads, and resigned our condition to God’s intervention,” he said.
In Ariaria, the area popularly called Free Zone is flooded, and petty foodstuffs traders, including local fruit and vegetable sellers, now walk round with their wares to seek buyers.
One of them, Mrs. Grace Nwogwugwu, lamented: “We are passing very hard times. We used to get customers from the Free Zone, but now we don’t see them. They’ve stopped coming to our area due to the bad access road.
“Government should come to our aid by asking the contractors to carry out some palliative work to help open access through which customers will reach us.”
Operator of a restaurant along Obohia Road, Mrs. Elizabeth Ibeoma, lamented that customers now prefer eating snacks and staying away from her shop due to the poor road situation.
“Our customers no longer come as they did before the rainy season. They complain of lack of money due to poor patronage in their various businesses.”
Aba roads handling had been a recurring issue of quarrel between the state government and a member of Abia House of Assembly, leading to alleged threats to his life, by those he claimed to be agents of the government that wanted to shut him up from expressing disaffection over the poor handling of the $56.7 million World Bank grant for flood control and channellization of the Ndiegoro flood to the Aba River.
Until something drastic is done, Aba residents, experts have said, will continue to battle flooding in their residential and business locations.