By JUDE NJOKU
Against the back drop of  massive flooding in some states, the Ondo State Government said it has risen to the occasion and has  put in place pre-emptive measures to ensure that incidents of flooding are nipped in the offing.

Commissioner  for the Environment, Mr Shola Ebiseni, a lawyer, who disclosed this to newsmen during a recent interaction, explained that through its integrated channelization effort and the war against filth, the state has ensured that  predictions of the Nigerian Metrological Agency on flooding in the state did not come true.

According to him, the state applies  both amphibious and manual excavations in the construction of  its channelization projects aimed at freeing  the river courses of weeds  and filth that may obstruct the free flow of water. Mr Ebiseni said the government has spent a total of N1.2billion in this regard.

The Environment commissioner who regretted that many communities have disappeared  due to the unwholesome activities of oil companies.

“The problem of oil spill and  the degradation of the environment,  a consequent of  oil exploration and exploitation in the state has been more pronounced in the state than the other Niger Delta states. Long before exploration and seismic operations commenced in other parts of the country,  we have long faced the challenges associated with oil exploration,” he said.

Ondo state, according to Ebiseni, has been living under the yoke of the negative effects of exploration activities of oil companies as the fifth largest producer of oil in the country with the twin problem of   coastal erosion because of the peculiarities of the state’s coasts which is marshy and muddy.

“Their activities has deprived the people their traditional occupation which is fishing and other aquatic activities,  which has  completely disappeared from our coasts as a result, endangering their survival which is based on water,” he said.

The commissioner decried the opening up of channels  in the hinter land by oil companies  where their wells are domiciled  into the Atlantic  where they have their major offshore facilities.  This he said, allows for the widening of channels which create havoc in the communities and compelling the villages  to relocate from their ancestral lands more than three times.