Talebearing24: Heavy Rain In Ibadan Metropolis

This day dated 26th August, 2011 started on a brighter note as usual, various activities were going on without being disturbed in the early hours of the day in all the nooks and crannies of the metropolis. There was a little shinning of the sun around 11:00hrs which was normal and bearable.

After this shinning of the sun, the cloud started gathering momentum in the sky and before we knew it, the weather had been completely changed into a cloudy and rainy type. This did not send any signal to the people because people had seen and experienced such friendly environment before which later faded away, but the reverse was the case on this day.

Around 16:30hrs, the rain began to fall with a very soft hand for few minutes and stopped. It did that severally but when it returned, it continued to fall heavily for several hours, everywhere was full of running-off water. This rain was expected to fall for few minutes and stop but it was not so. What a big surprise!

Many fences collapsed, shops were carted away by this heavy downpour while many bridges were not left out. Properties and lives were lost in this flood. What a fateful day!

Nobody could ever imagine such ugly occurrence in Ibadan metropolis on this day. There was no junction without traffic jam. Several bridges that linked two roads to each other had been carted away by this overflowing running-off water which compounded the menace of the traffic jam and standstill

of vehicular movement. This resulted into the movement of the people on the road with the legs. The car owners abandoned their cars and trekked long distance to their various homes.

The remaining bridges were covered up by the flood. When the flood was coming not knowing that there was a traffic jam on the bridges, having seen this odd and uncalled-for visitor by the drivers, they alighted from their cars and took to their heels for the safety of their lives, it swallowed the cars and drove them away. Nobody could ascertain the amount

 of losses of properties and the number of peoples' lives that went with this disastrous and unfriendly incident.

One could compare what happened in Ibadan metropolis concerning the unstopped rain to "Omiyale" meaning house carted away by water that occurred in 1980 in the same city about thirty-one years ago, where many lives and properties were lost then as well. What a tragedy!

This odd occurrence is not the first time in this particular year but this one was very exceptional. This problem can be traced to the poor management of the few available drainage or inadequate drainage system in all the nooks and crannies of the city. Many shops and buildings were built on the drainage paths while some buildings were built very close to the riverbank. Small gutters were constructed by the landlords and landladies without the knowledge of the engineers.

The available drainage and gutters were blocked with the eroded soil and wastes from human activities and erosion. Nobody or few cares for the cuttings and clearing of grasses in the drainage or gutter paths which also constituted to this problem. Environmental sanitation is not as effective as what and how it was known to be in 90s.

To put an end to this ugly incident, government be it local, state or federal has vital roles to play. People are needed to be enlightened and seriously-educated on how to dispose their wastes and where to dispose them. Law-enforcement agents should be employed and mobilized to oversee this process in the nook and cranny of the city.

Carted away bridges should be strongly constructed and raised above the water level to avoid such occurrence in the future. The drainage system needs to be seriously looked into and found lasting solutions to this problem. Town planners should checkmate the man's activities on the erection of buildings and shops on the drainage or near the drainage and dismantle any building or shop found on its path to pave way for running-off water.

Jingles should be made on radio and television stations across the country to enlighten people not to dispose wastes or refuses into the drainage system or gutters. Any defaulter must be sanctioned and prosecuted. If all these solutions are considered by the government and the masses, the problem of flooding which can lead to loss of lives and properties in future will be a thing of the past. Peace brings development and people want to live in peace not in pieces, for this to be realized, government must do something very tangible at this moment time. God blesses Ibadan, God blesses Oyo State and God blesses Nigeria as a whole.