Engineers involved in the design of road projects in Rivers State have been charged to give priority attention to drainages so as to check the menace of flooding in our environment.

Chairman, Rivers State Flood Management Committee, Prof Winston I. Bell-Gam who gave the charge in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt said road projects designed without proper attention to drainages were compounding the flood problems.

Prof. Bell-Gam therefore urged appropriate agencies involved in the approval and inspection of road projects to always ensure that drainage issues were not compromised because of the adverse effect it has on the project and environment.

Prof. Bell-Gam who also expressed concern over the flood situation in the various local government areas of the state said the committee was putting up proposals on how to tackle flood problems in the rural communities as the committee’s mandate covers the hinterland.

He particularly advised members of the public with useful information on flood to take advantage of the phone numbers publicised adding that his committee was in the process of setting up a website for easy accessibility and contact to enable it deal with flood wherever it occurs.

Prof. Bell-Gam also urged the people to desist from dumping waste on the canals and drainages to avoid blockage noting that to properly tackle the challenges of flooding, residents, organised private sector and corporate organisations operating in the state should complement efforts of the government.

The flood management committee boss also emphasised the need for property owners and developers to adhere strictly to the law which stipulates that people should observe 50 metres gap from the river banks as his committee recommends that the state government should remove defaulting structures to allow free flow of water.

He also called on people to fight the negative attitude of throwing waste into the drains by calling on appropriate agencies to arrest defaulters since the act create problems that affect the generality of the people.

Describing setting up of the committee as one of the most serious things that Governor Amaechi’s administration has done within the first 100 days of his second term in office, the committee boss challenged other state governors to emulate Governor Amaechi’s step to adequately handle the scourge of flooding which according to him has assumed one of the most serious environmental challenges in the world.

He particularly called on the federal government to provide more money from the Ecological Fund to states in coastal areas to enable them fight flooding before it takes more serious dimensions as seen in some countries of the world.

Chris Oluoh