The much awaited
construction work on the Benin City storm water project finally took off
yesterday as Governor Adams Oshiomhole flagged off phase 1 of the
project at the Ogba River end of the 7.5 kilometer canal. By this, the
problem of flooding which had plagued Benin City, the Edo State capital
for so many years, may soon be a thing of the past.
While flagging off
the multi-billion naira project, Mr. Oshiomhole observed that the
flooding problem of the city is not beyond solution, saying that “It is
unacceptable that while the rest of the world look towards the rainy
season with joy, in fact, in parts of Nigeria, people pray for rain to
come. But in Benin City, once it threatens to rain,
people are afraid; they are crying. Whereas others celebrate rainfall, Benin people suffer from flooding after rainfall.
“We had incidents in
the past in 2008 where some women lost their babies to flood and a
number of communities were devastated. This will soon be a thing of the
past.” The governor said the challenge of flooding in Benin City
requires a holistic approach rather than a piecemeal approach, adding
that problems are not solved on the basis of the rule of the thumb. He
noted that to tackle the erosion menace, the state government had to
carry out studies to find the best approach to solving the problem.
Underlying the
seriousness of the project, Mr. Oshiomhole said: “this is not a
window-dressing project; this is not being done for people to say we are
working. This is being done because we are genuinely concerned that
Benin City must be de-flooded.” Speaking earlier, the Commissioner for
Environment and Public Utilities, Clem Agba said the areas to be
affected in the First Phase of the project are Adolor College road,
Textile Mill road, Otote road, Uwelu road, Akugbe street, Iyoba, among
others.
A symbolic cheque of N6 billion mobilization fees which had been
previously paid was presented to the construction company handling the
project, Hitech Engineering Company, which the company’s representative
confirmed The governor later commissioned Hitech Construction Company’s
equipment worth over N3 billion purposely acquired for the Benin City
Storm Water project.
