The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has begun evacuating one million metres of drainage channels in the Northeast to mitigate flooding caused by global warming.
Speaking on Tuesday while inspecting the clearance activities going on in several drainage channels across Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC), the Managing Director NEDC, Mohammed Alkali, said that due to global warming and the issue of flooding worldwide, the Commission embarked on the drainage channel evacuation to mitigate impending flooding.
He said that in Borno State, NEDC would be clearing about 250 to 300 metres of the drainage channels, which would be replicated in the other five states of the Northeast.
Alkali added that evacuation of the drainages has allowed the Commission to empower the youths in the respective areas and mitigate flooding in cases.
“Our idea here is to do more things at the same time. Global warming and flooding are everywhere, and drainage is used to mitigate flooding. So, in the Northeast, we are trying to clear about one million meters of drainage channels.
” In Maiduguri, we are doing about 250 to 300 metres. In all other states of the Northeast, we are doing the same thing. Evacuation of the drainages will also create jobs for the youths in the affected places. In most areas, we have installed solar lights to curb criminal activities at night, ” he said.
Suleiman Bala, a Bulumkutu Kogi Tiper area resident, commended NEDC for evacuating the drainage channels in their areas, saying that their homes used to be flooded whenever it rained.
He urged NEDC to clear the water channels in their community as much as possible to prevent people from fleeing their homes during the rainy season and returning after the rains.
“Our homes used to be flooded to the extent that people abandoned their homes during rainy seasons. We only return home when the rains stop, and the areas are dry. Vehicles and tricycles don’t plight the roads to the community during the rainy season, “he said.
Meanwhile, the NEDC Managing Director and the management team inspected about 10,000 litres of solar-powered boreholes sanked on several communities in the metropolis to ascertain their functionality.
The NEDC team visited the areas of the boreholes, drainage channels evacuation, and installed streetlights inspection, which include Giwa Barracks, Fori graveyard, New GRA, Gwange Ward, Sir Kashim Ibrahim College, Bulumkutu, Ramat Square, Dandal Way, Fezzan, and Lawan Bukar Nimeri Korongori.
