Port Harcourt May Experience Flooding This Year, If… – Don

Guest Speaker, Mr Angus Ozoka (right), presenting paper at the public enlightenment on Medical Waste Incinerator Project of Ecological Funds Office in Ibadan recently.

A professor of
Engineering Geology at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Professor Tamunoene Kingdom Simeon Abam, has predicted massive flooding in Port Harcourt and environs
this year, if the various drains across the city are not opened up.
Professor Abam  a member of the Rivers State flood management committee also called for an interministerial committee to check the incessant encroachment on drains by property developers.
The University Don, who spoke to newsmen recently in Port Harcourt, also stressed the need for the enforcement of regulations which prohibit people from encroaching on drains.
He said that the drains should not only be clean up but should be connected to the rivers, adding that at the moment not much is being done interms of connecting drains in the city to the rivers.
“The flood control committee has taken a look at network of drains and what is being done to them.
“We suggested that, it is  necessary to open them up and connect them to the rivers” he said.
Meanwhile, Professor Abam has described the absence of field instruments and laboratory as a major constraint to flood and erosion research at the institute of Geosciences and space technology (IGST) at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology.
This was contained  in his lecture delivered recently at the university.
According to the University Don, much of the progress recorded at the institute has been individual/personal in character and through opportunities offered by consultancies.
“Much of the research, therefore, relies heavily on secondary data, except in cases, where a client requires an investigation to be carried out in a particular area.
“This means that our researches are now driven and determined by clients interest, scope and location which to me is an aberration.
“The problems of flood and erosion won’t go away tomorrow morning, they will be here for a long time to come, so will research into ways of better control and adaptation to the hazards”  he said.
The erudite scholar said that the nature and complexity of research in the area of erosion and flood control demands the availability of modern field and laboratory facilities as well as a suitable mix of interdisciplinary manpower.