By Jude Njoku

At the peak of the  rainy season, those of us who live along the Ala River bed hardly sleep because of the heavy flooding of our area. In fact, before the channelization project in the Otenioro Layout zone, water gets into our homes whenever it rained.

Residents used to relocate temporarily because of the fear tat they may be washed away with their families. We sent a Save our Soul (SOS) appeal to the State government and they responded swiftly by constructing this water channel.  We have had rains this year and most people thought the usual flooding would occur but to our greatest joy, nothing like that happened.

Ala River is like a circle and goes round Akure. We commend the State government for coming to our assistance and assure it that no resident of Otenioro Layout will dump refuse into the channel. We will ensure that it is free of refuse at all times”.

That was how Chief Olusola Owoeye, the Chairman of Otenioro Layout Community Development Association CDA, summed up the feelings of residents of the once flood prone neighbourhood in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
Chief Owoeye spoke during an inspection of the Ala River channelization project by the Ondo State Commissioner for Environment & Mineral Resources, Mr Sola Ebiseni.

Ebiseni who is a lawyer, explained why the state embarked upon the various channelization projects in Akure and other major towns in the State. “Ondo State was one of the states that received alerts from the National Metrological Agency that if care was not taken, there would be flooding in the state.

“We swung into action and one of the major ways of tackling that was to ensure that the river cuttings are channelized, they are widened and made deeper in order to accommodate larger volumes of rivers in order to prevent a situation where the blockage  of the river cuttings would be flooding within the state.

“We do this through three main methods. The first is mechanical channelization which we do by engaging our machines particularly our amphibious excavator to channel the courses of the river. The second one is manual channelization in which we use volunteers,” he said.

The 3.5 metres by 450 metres concrete channelization project which links NEPA Neighbourhood Market and Kudirat Abiola Shopping Centre and Otenioro Layout Zone channelization are part of the ongoing projects to ensure that Akure is flood free throughout the year.

Me Ebiseni called on the Federal Government to allocate to Ondo state which is one of the major oil producing states in the country, a fair share of the ecological fund to enable it tackle the myriad of environmental challenges facing it. He also gave an insight into the operations of te Environment Ministry.

“Being an oil-producing state, it relates to oil exploitation and exploration and its effects on the environment. From records available to us, we have the second largest deposit of bitumen in the world and so, we have the responsibility to ensure that in the eventual exploitation of this mineral resource, that we as a state do not fall into the same problem we had with oil exploitation.

As part of our responsibility, particularly by the present administration, clean and green campaign in which we plant trees both for aesthetics and ornamental concerns and also, like the scientists would say, as our own way of controlling the effects of climate change, particularly, global warming aspect of it.

This leads to what this administration has focused on which has not been heard, that is, ensuring that trees are planted everywhere in the state and the flowers that you see all over the major roads and in the various estates particularly within the state capital.

As part of the activities of the Ministry in the area of greening the environment, this administration has opened up parks and wood lofts where hitherto forests or wasted forests are today, regenerated and made beautiful for parks and leisures for people of the state generally.

As you go out, one of it is in front of the Government House and there are proposals to turn right in front of you, outside the government secretariat, the forest that you see there, to turn it into a new park.