Barely two days after the deadly flooding that submerged no fewer than 116 houses in Lugbe district, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has declared the Trademore Estate area a disaster zone that needs immediate action to remedy further damages and the loss of lives and properties.
The FCTA also said it is looking at evacuating people from those areas to prevent further casualties.
The Permanent Secretary, FCTA, Olusade Adesola, said the flooding incident at Trademore Estate was among the issues reviewed at the FCT monthly security committee meeting.
According to him, the review was to consider the effort that needs to be put in place to mitigate property damage and casualty resulting from flooding in FCT.
Adesola, who led senior FCTA officials and heads of security and paramilitary agencies domiciled in the FCT, on an assessment tour of the affected area, said they were amazed that only two days after the flood, people have returned to some of the properties.
He however added that the FCDA Executive Secretary, who chairs the Taskforce on flood mitigation in FCT, the CP and other officials of the FCTA, particularly FEMA, Development Control, and AEPB are now ready to go and evolve solutions that would immediately address the menace.
He said: “We just visited Trademore to see the developmental challenges occasioned by the nature of the drainage constructed against water across the roads in the area. We have seen the need to look into this urgently.
“We were quite amazed at the level of flooding that occurred there. More particular is the risk that people took – to build in such a low-level plain. While on the road, we saw that even the roof of the houses was below the road level, which makes them vulnerable to flooding.
“The task force will immediately swing to action to make recommendations on urgent issues or attention that must be given to the area. As we cannot fold our hands and allow the destruction to continue.
“We were amazed that only two days after the flood, people have returned to some of the properties. So, in a couple of days, we will be taking appropriate action. Having seen the extent of the flooding, we hereby declare the Trademore Estate area a disaster zone that needs immediate action to remedy further damages and loss of lives and properties.
“So, we will look at a programme of evacuating people from those areas, so as to ensure that we prevent the loss of lives and property.
“For the rest of the year, rain predictions show that there might still be more heavy rains, which means that there could be damages and casualties. And the FCTA will do everything possible within its power to ensure that we mitigate such occurrence.”
He urged residents to always exercise restraints in the places where they run to so that they don’t run into where they would be trapped.
Emmanuel Ukoh
