Dredging Ogun river would curb flooding at Isheri – Gov Abiodun

By James Ogunnaike, Abeokuta

Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun has said that adequate dredging and channelisation of the Ogun river would go a long way in curbing the perennial flooding in Isheri and its environs.

Governor Abiodun, who said this when he received the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, who paid him a courtesy call in his office at Oke-Mosan Abeokuta at the weekend, also observed that water released from Cameroon contributed to the disaster.

He said: “We have identified some immediate causes. We have the Oyan Dam, and it is being overseen by the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority. The Minister of Water Resources and that of State for the Environment were here to see for themselves as it was the consequences of that flooding.

“We identified together that the Dam itself contributed to the problem, and of course, it is not intentional, because Dams were built to capture bodies of water that are in the channel. It serves as sources of water supply, irrigation, and also the control of flooding.

“The other part is that the Ogun River is channelled to go through the area in question. That channel itself requires proper channelization. There is evidence that the channel needs to be disilted. The Ogun River emptied into the Lagoon, so when you have the channel where people build houses on, when there is a downpour, when the Dam itself is opened, the water overflows.”

Governor Abiodun described this year’s flooding in the Isheri axis as the worst in recent times, saying it has affected the commercial and social life of the people as residents now take refuge in camps of various religious bodies across the State.

He said though the area is flood plain, successive governments allocated the land for development purposes, saying the immediate concern of his administration was to look at the remote causes and the interventions that could be deployed to bring relief to the residents as government could not embark on demolition exercise as there are warehouses, different estates, businesses and schools in the axis.

While emphasizing the need for correctional work on roads in the axis, Governor Abiodun opined that the flooding is not localized as the State has to contend with water released from the Republic of Cameroon, noting that there is an urgent need to engage a Consultant to conduct proper study and come up with holistic plan that could lead to permanent and sustainable solutions to the problem.

Abiodun appreciated President Bola Tinubu for the laudable intervention programmes put in place to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal and the ones meant for the State, saying he would personally review the State’s Social Register to ensure fairness and inclusiveness.

Speaking earlier, Edu said the federal government is considering the construction of buffer dams to control flooding around communities abutting the Ogun River.