By Godwin Oghre

Sapele—Residents of Adidi Road, Sapele, Delta State, have raised alarm over constant flooding of their homes, blaming the development on poor drainage system and lack of good roads in the area.

They said that the trend has occasioned social and economic hardship on them as they called on the state government to come to their aid.

One of the residents and spokesperson of the area, Mr Ben Tobi, noted that the people staged a peaceful protest recently to draw the attention of the state government to their plight.

He said: “This area is consistently flooded during any heavy downpour. The road was to be rehabilitated during Blessing Okagbare’s marriage. The contractor poorly scrapped it and blocked the drainage with concrete, thereby stopping the flow of the water. He promised to come back to site but since then we have not seen him despite several reminders to the state government.

“The flooding is tampering with the foundation of the houses in the area. All the mud homes of our fathers have collapsed and there is no guarantee that the block houses will not collapse in very short time because of the constant flooding.”

“We have no other home to move to. This is our only home. The rains and the effects of the bad road have caused so much hardship. It will force us to abandon the area if the government does not do something urgently about it. Tenants are already packing out of the area day by day because of the flooding. We do not know if it was a DLA job or it was awarded by government to a contractor.

“Sapele is an oil producing area, we do not know why DESOPADEC cannot come to our aid. The contract for this road had been awarded countless time but the contractor will appear for a few days and thereafter disappear, never to come back again. There is no proper drainage here, making the flood to overrun us at the slightest down pour,” he said.