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| Alh. Baba Kachalla Geidam, GM YOSEPA |
Like every other state, Yobe State is also prone to perennial flooding which has become more
like a ritual.
The state is however
taken proactive instead of reactive measures as the Yobe State Environmental
Protection Agency(YOSEPA) is re-positioned to mitigate the ugly cases of flooding in the state.
The General Manager of YOSEPA,
Alhaji Baba Kachalla Geidam while reacting to questions from ImapactOnline
on the measures put in place by the state government said his agency is now
rejuvenated to ensure that the menace of flooding in the state is reduced to
its barest minimum.
Alhaji Kachalla added
that though some of the causes of flooding could be man-made while others are
natural, his agency has embarked on the sensitization and collaborating
with frontline communities in building their
capacities on prevention and response to flood disasters whenever they occur.
“Sometimes even before
government interventions, communities come together and clear their drainages
and later report to us that they want us to go and evacuate the debris because
they lack the capacity. What the community and the agency do is collaborative
and symbiotic.
“Even if the community
does not evacuate these drainages, the agency must do it yearly. Every year,
the communities are at the receiving end so we normally sensitized them to make
sure they protect their environment. Once
there is flooding they are at the frontline so they known the dangers of
flooding and most of them have minimized the indiscriminate dumping of refuse
around the drainage in their areas.
“You will agree with me
that communities also contribute to the
flooding . We have gone ahead to sensitize them on the dangers of drainage blockade in communities
and we give them health talks. We also have collaboration with shop owner to
watch the indiscriminate dumping of refuse”, Baba Kachalla explained.
The GM YOSEPA also disclosed that, Yobe State
Government through his agency has developed a workable template to minimize flooding
in six major towns including Damaturu,
Potiskum, Nguru, Buni Yadi, Geidam and,
Gashua across the state.
Going into specifics,
the General Manger explained;” Every year the Yobe State government use to
release some funds to excavate drainages across six major towns in the state. We
normally restrict our activities to these six towns because it will entail on
our time , resources and some of the local government doesn’t even have
drainages.
“We concentrate our
activities in Damaturu and excavate all the drainages in this town. There is a
plan to excavate drainages in Yadi Buni, Potiskum, Nguru, Gashua and Geidam
towns. We do engage in doing this. Places like Nguru and Gashua have peculiar
problem because flood in that area is not caused by rainfall but by the overflow
of Kumadugu Yobe River.
“In Nguru for instance,
the topography is a wetland area and the water that discharges from Hadeja barrage is the one that normally
comes to Nguru. Once the water comes to Nguru we don’t have these gate banks
that will control the water so there is always an upsurge of the water into Nguru town with full force which cause flood to more than quarter of the town.
“But what the ministry
now does is to go and do a stone pitching or embankments of sand-bags which
will hold the barrage of water for one
year.
In Gashua, by virtue of
its depressed geographical area is also prone to flooding. Here water coming
from Hadeja and the other water coming
from Bauchi normally forms a confluence
at Karage village and then advance to
Gashua to flood the entire town. The force of the water is always so much that
the water moves beyond Gashua,” he explained.
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| An open water Channel in Damaturu. |
Speaking on Damaturu,
the state capital, the GM identified some high risked flood areas like Nayinawa
and Pompomari Ndjemena, while also concluding that, Damaturu has a depressed
topography that collects water from different direction of the town leaving the
centre vulnerable.
“The problem of
Damaturu for instance also has to do
with the topography which is depressed. Water comes into Damaturu in all directions
with full force. Once this water comes into Damaturu, it comes with a lot of
river sand which block up all the drainage and prevents free flow of water wherever there is rain. The only thing that will solve this is to dig a very big
tunnel around Damaturu that will channel the water outside Damaturu to go and
harvest towards the eastern side of the town for
people to use for dry season farming”, he suggested.
According to the YOSEPA
boss, “Studies have shown that there are two major areas in Damaturu that are
prone to flooding. One is a larger cluster of houses around Nayinawa. The water pressure that comes from the northern part of the town come through that area. The second one is Pompomari
Njdemena where all that water form this town flows to.
“At the moment, our people are in Malam Azara
in that area. It is community collaboration with my agency to evacuate
drainages in that area and they have excavated more that 1km and the agency
will clear the debris. This shows how serious the communities are interested in
dealing with the problem.
On people building
houses on water channels, the GM noted that his agency also advise government
to locate such settlement just as he maintained that a good number of them are
illegal buildings.
“Those who normally
build houses on water ways are illegal occupant and we always advised them to
move away. But what I know is that government will not allocate such a place. But
as an agency we meet the community leaders to sensitized the people against
those practices,” he said.
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| An excavator working on water channels in Damaturu to allow free water flow after rains. |
On the capacity of his
agency, Alhaji Baba Geidam informed that his agency have a wheel excavator, a
pay-loader and ten tippers truck, just as he boast of having the expertise in personale
to match his mandate.
He noted that his
agency is primed to be proactive instead of reactionary.
