Uneasy rainy days in Kaduna

• How infrastructure deficit worsens the climate crises

... flooding in Sabon Tasha

By DANGWA DANJUMA

Following heavy downpour in this wet season, communities in the fringes of Kaduna metropolis, are helplessly alarmed by the magnitude of flooding they are experiencing which for them have become a recurring signature of rainfall in recent time. 

In Sabon Tasha, Chikun local government area, constituting many communities of majorly low income earners in the state have, called on government to find a lasting solution to incessant flooding bedevilling the community during rainy seasons.

"Erosion over the years have made useless several kilometers of drainages built by residents, making all debris during rain to find their way through the unhindered growing channels that mark the roads leading to the highway.  I also fear that waste management and the sanitation culture needs to improve because refuse left in drainages could also be contributing to the problem", says the Ward Councilor, Honorable Ganaka James Kogi on the flood that submerged Kachia Road in front of a bakery.

I always say it, even to the environmental agency, that it is not entirely the fault of the residents, because in the first place what informed the decision of the authority to give the go ahead to residents to dump refuse on the pavement? It is wrong

Kogi further hinted: "The bakery had carried out evacuation on the drainage sometimes last week, but the waste returns faster to drainages because of the deplorable state of roads in the community most of which have never been paved. We have bad feeder roads leading to this highway."

I always say it, even to the environmental agency, that it is not entirely the fault of the residents, because in the first place what informed the decision of the authority to give the go ahead to residents to dump refuse on the pavement? It is wrong", he stated.

Speaking to CUBINKS NEWS, Kogi revealed that, "I have been keeping in touch with the management of the Kaduna Environment Protection Agency on this and the stage we are in now is locating alternative dump site. We will also inform residents to ensure compliance as the community must take responsibility of doing the right thing."

the blame is on shop owners, commuters; bad roads and drainage systems from the streets to the highway; heavy downpour that characterizes the rainy season and neglect from authorities like Kaduna Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA), Kaduna State Roads Agency who have blinded their eyes to the plight of the community

A youth leader in the affected community, Wayo Silas Mahek, regretted that human activity 

which ought to improve the environment has turned out to be the cause of the problem. "If the drainages are kept clean, flooding will not happen, business owners who throw trash from their shops and offices into the drainage are also not helping the situation and are exposing most of what is left as infrastructure in the area to decay ".

The government needs to urgently, ensure that shop owners along the major roads do not throw refuse into drainages, by persecuting defaulters. They should also evacuate refuse gathered at pick-up locations timely, to prevent the rains washing them back into the drainages", Mahek admonished.

Bonat Tachio, a resident of the area also corroborated Mahek, "the blame is on shop owners, commuters; bad roads and drainage systems from the streets to the highway; heavy downpour that characterizes the rainy season and neglect from authorities like Kaduna Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA), Kaduna State Roads Agency who have blinded their eyes to the plight of the community".

Head of Leadership, Governance and Advocacy, Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment and Development, Yusuf Goje, who met with the few community actors, encouraged youth leaders in the ward to partner with organizations, mobilize, organize and engage in massive awareness creation in the community, and initiate an advocacy to relevant government agencies towards addressing the issue of flooding brought about by poor infrastructure and bad waste management practices. 

There have been wide public outcry of neglect by residents of the area where a drainage project under Kaduna State Public Works Agency now KADRA had been abruptly suspended indefinitely all this while

There was a consensus to collaboratively organize community sensitization and mobilize able bodied youths to clear the blocked drainages and also launch an advocacy targeted at government to ensure a permanent solution to the climate crisis.

The Kaduna State Government has ranked infrastructure development and the ongoing Urban Renewal program under KADRA as second to none in its priorities; though inside the metropolis, Sabon Tasha have not been a beneficiary of the initiative after over four years of its implementation. There have been wide public outcry of neglect by residents of the area where a drainage project under Kaduna State Public Works Agency now KADRA had been abruptly suspended indefinitely all this while by the Kaduna State Government.