By Hillary Asemota
The forecast of fluvial flooding across the country in the month of September by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), is evidently coming into manifestation following the recent flooding in Gombe, Osun, Bauchi, Niger, Jigawa and several other states.
Admitting the devastation caused by the flooding the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, SAN on Tuesday, directed the immediate emergency repairs on sections of roads where failure had occurred due to flooding caused by heavy rainfall in five states across the country.
Fashola who gave the directive at a briefing meeting in Abuja named the roads for immediate intervention to include Ibadan – Ile Ife road, Gombe – Bauchi road, Gombe – Darazo; Bauchi – Ningi, Bida – Lambata, and Tsamiya bridge in Jigawa State.
The Minister assured that continuous attention will be given to other roads with similar challenges occasioned by weather and climate extremes.
The Minister said federal government is committed to infrastructure development and will respond promptly to complaints from citizens.
The Director General of NiMet, Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, while fielding questions from Reporters at the sideline of the GCRF-Africa SWIFT Workshop on the Pre-Tested 3 Users and Co-Production, in Abuja recently, said the agency had always provided update of its forecast on a very short range and daily basis to weekly basis in which we made mention earlier that the period between July and September will witness very busy rainfall activities with enhancement of moisture.
According to him, the rain will be characterized with a lot of overland flow in form of fluvial flooding either cities known as flash floods or around flood plain areas known as riverine floods.
