…Vows to take action against destruction
By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The popular TradeMore Estate along the Airport Road has been declared a disaster Area following incessant flooding resulting in destruction, loss of lives and property.
The Permanent Secretary of the FCTA, Mr Olusola Adesola made this declaration today when he led some officials on a visit to TradeMore area to ascertain the level of destruction and degradation caused by flood in recent times.
Speaking to Journalists during visits to some devastated area, Adesola noted the flooding incident at the TradeMore Estate was among issues reviewed at the FCT Monthly Security Committee meeting to find solutions to mitigate property damage and casualty in the flood prone area in FCT.
According to him, the Committee decided to visit the flood affected areas, in order to have a first hand information on the extent of the flood, and to be able to proffer appropriate solutions to address them.
“We just visited Trademore to see the developmental challenges occasioned by the nature of the drainage constructed against water across the roads in the area.”
“We have seen the need to look into this urgently. and we were quite amazed at the level of flooding that occurred there- at Trademore Estate.”
” More particularly is the risk that people took – to build in such a low level plain. While on the road, we saw that even the roof of the houses were bellow the road level, which makes them vulnerable to flooding.”
The Permanent Secretary said that the taskforce will swiftly swing into action to arrive at recommendations on urgent actions that must be given to the area, adding, ” we cannot fold our hands and allow the destruction to continue.”
However, he noted that just after only two days after the flood, people have returned to some of the properties.
“This doesn’t show regards for human lives, so in a couple of days, we will be taking appropriate action. Having seen the extent of the flooding, we hereby declare the Trademore Estate area a disaster zone that needs immediate action to remedy further damages and lost of lives and properties.”
The Chairman of the FCDA Taskforce on Flood Mitigation in FCT, the CP and other officials of the FCTA particularly FEMA, Development Control, AEPB are now ready to go and evolve solutions that would immediately address the menace, he disclosed.
“For the rest of the year, rain predictions show that there might still be more heavy rains, which means that there could be damages and casualty.”
“The FCTA will do everything possible within its power to ensure that we mitigate such occurrence. ”
Adesola urged residents to exercise restraints in the places where they run to, so that they don’t run into where they would trapped.
So we will look at a programme of evacuating people from those areas, so as to ensure that we prevent the loss of lives and property, he promised.
