Flood Prevention: Osun Govt. commences dredging of waterways

The Osun Government has started dredging of waterways including streams, rivers and canals in the state in order to prevent a repeat of the 2019 flood disaster.

The Commissioner for Environment and Sanitation, Mr Oladepo Atanda, made the disclosure to our correspondent in Oshogbo on Wednesday.

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Atanda said the state government had engaged contractors to start dredging the waterways ahead of the rains.

“The flood in Osun last year was very devastating; the more devastating aspect of it was the submergence of buildings in parts of the the main cities.

“The downpour from August to September 2019 was very huge and resulted in the bitter stories of the affected communities.

“No fewer than 1,000 people were rendered homeless and property worth millions of naira were destroyed.

“This year, 2020, we have taken a lot of steps to forestal a repeat of the incident and thank God the Governor has made enough preparations.

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“He equally intervened last year and it was the intervention that saved the state from the havoc that would have been of a very terrible extent.

“This year, graciously, the governor has approved that we commence the clearing of all the streams, canals and rivers in the state before the rain starts.

“This is an action that will save us from the rainfall prediction by Nimet.

“So we are readily prepared and we are working hard to ensure that all our contractors do what we ask them to do,” he said

The commissioner said government had released funds for the project.

“We are going to do a lot of dredging and we have approached, within the past weeks, the Federal Ministry of Environment to solicit its support in terms of ecological fund.

“We have done the presentation of our operations at the federal ministry of environment and the governor too has visited the mininistry.

“We believe with all these, things should turn out good for the state. So we don’t have any reason to panic or envisage any flood disaster this year,” he said.


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