Dredging of Rivers and Streams in Ibadan to Mitigate Flash Floods

The Mandate of a Flood-Free Ibadan

Once the dry season sets in, residents of Ibadan, currently adjudged Nigeria’s third largest metropolitan city, enjoy some measure of relief, borne out of the fact that the fear of flooding is kept at bay, at least while the dry season lasts. This is based on the fact that Ibadan has witnessed massive flooding over the years, with the first officially recorded one being in 1951. Since then, there have been sporadic flooding incidents plaguing the sprawling city, with attendant tragic after-effects on lives and property. While there were more floods in the 1980s than in the preceding decades, perhaps the worst flooding episode was the one that took place on 26 th August, 2011 which destroyed most of the strategic, flood-channeling hydraulic structures in the ancient city, in addition to colossal loss of human and animal lives. According to a report titled “ The August 2011 Flood in Ibadan, Nigeria: Anthropogenic Causes and Consequences ” by a team of experts commissioned by the Oyo ...

Combing the Akinyele Thickets in Search of PAPs

Wednesday and Thursday, 23 rd and 24 th June, 2021 were two days of a kind for some operational staff of the Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP). Not because the Project suddenly hit a jackpot or accomplished its full mandate, but more for the streak of adventure experienced by the concerned staff on both days. This derived from their being co-opted into the arduous but exciting task of combing remote villages and farmlands within the jurisdiction of Akinyele Local Government Area of Ibadan, which have been earmarked for building of dikes for flood control in the metropolis. The background information is that, building of seventeen (17) dikes had been factored into the IUFMP design as part of the long-term measures to checkmate perennial flooding in Ibadan. The idea behind the dikes is to temporarily hold water flow at the upstream areas of rivers prone to flooding, with a view to curtailing flow level into the metropolis during periods of heavy downpour. The dikes ...

CLIMA

Search This Blog