by Ambrose Nwaogwugwu
There was a heavy downpour yesterday’s night in the city of Owerri and as expected, Okorocha’s inglorious and destructive ruins became prominent and too evident.
It is shameful that it is still Okorocha’s hordes of Iberiberists who are everywhere on the internet crying of flooding while mischievously pointing accusing fingers on the direction of the #PeoplesGovernor Hope Uzodimma.
Okorocha’s destructive ruins is too recent for these children of perdition to have developed early signs of amnesia to have forgotten how their master of Iberiberism destroyed Owerri in the name of urban renewal programs.
All the drainages and water collectors in and out of Owerri were either completely destroyed or built upon thereby obstructing the free flow of drains whenever it rains.
Owerri city which does not have any history of flooding developed flooding overnight simply because there was an Emperor who neither took professional counsel nor acted according to constituted Master plans of the city.
I was with the GM of waterboard the other and he was complaining bitterly to me how the Okorocha’s era destroyed all the water pipes in the city and beyond that the state government has to start afresh in the provision of pipe Channels for public water supply.
For a city that do not have any history of flooding, Okorocha’s negation to due process and utter disregard for Owerri master plan created an overnight and artificial flooring in the city.
All the existing underground water collection Channels were completely destroyed by Okorocha’s and his hordes of quack urban renewers and the new ones where it was indicated in the master plan of the city were completely disregarded, so tell Nwaogwugwu why Owerri won’t flood when it rains?
Do you want to do magic to drain the rains whenever it falls?
These things are not rocket sciences; what you give is what you get. You can not plant maize and want to harvest cassava. It is impossible.
You cannot block all the water channels in the city and expect it not to flood whenever it rains. It is simply impossible.
This is why the #SharedProsperity administration took it up the very moment the governor assumed office with the awarding of construction of 1.8 million balloons underground waterways tunnel to drain the water to the river whenever it rains.
The Balloon Technology Drainage System which stretches from Dick Tiger road, MCC road going thru relief market, Chukwuma Nwoha Road down to Egbu Road terminating at the Otamiri River is at the last stage of completion (over 90% Completed) as the tunnel has already crossed the Egbu road and now few meters away to Otamiri where the drains are to be emptied into.
Credit must also be given to the short-lived administration of Gov. Emeka Ihedioha who also saw the urgency of reviving the drainage system in the city by desilting the existing ones in Owerri that were hitherto destroyed by Okorocha’s urban renewal nonsense.
For now, Imo people nay Owerri residents must exercise some patience while the construction of the underground drainage system is completed as works are ongoing day and night at the site by the 3R government.
And the people must also take some responsibility by keep keeping their environments free of rubbishes that blocks the waterways, most especially their drainage systems as we are about entering into the rainy season.
We can not continue to blame the government on everything, even on the things that would have ordinarily be abated if we should act as responsible citizens.
Ambrose Nwaogwugwu.
May 09, 2021.
