Florence Uwaeme
Residents of Rumuowha community in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State are not having the best of times.
The flooding in the community has wrecked livelihoods and made house owners live almost houseless.
The Rukpokwu-Eneka road was one of the first projects executed by Governor Wike led administration in his first tenure.
However, part of the scope for the execution of the project was to construct a large Borrow-pit somewhere at Rumuowha to serve as a receptacle for stormwater coming from the drainage.
But for some reasons, the borrow-pit was never executed, meanwhile, the drainage has already been channelled into the part of Rumuowha town, hence all the stormwater coming from the Rukpokwu and Eneka ends of the road empties into that section of Rumuowha thereby flooding the whole area.
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Residents say that until this road was constructed, there was never the issue of flooding in the area.
They said the flood is so devastating that every year during the rainy season, they always vacate their houses for at least 5 months as the floods will literally take over the area.
They said that in some sections, the flood gets to chest level, adding that many residents have lost their properties and houses.
The said the area was fast developing into a big beautiful town but after the road construction in 2016, has become deserted and abandoned.
They called on the State Government, Ministry of Works and other agencies of government to come to their rescue, and re-mobilise the contractor to go back and complete the work by constructing a carnal that will channel the water away from the area, as that remains the only solution to this problem.
[…] Residents of this Rivers Community abandoned their homes for 5 months […]