Delta’s War Against Blocked Waterways

FOR almost two months or thereabout, the Delta state government had been embarking on the opening of blocked waterways across the state, particularly, the Warri axis. The Ministry of Environment led by the young and dare-devil Commissioner in Chief Frank Omare, a typical Warri boy in his own right had waged a relentless war against the blocked drainages in Warri, a city below sea level. The efforts completely supported by the state Governor, Dr.Uduaghan also a Warri boy, were seen on the state television day and night, under rain or sunshine, with bulldozers and caterpillars , excavating large chunks of human debris and wastes clogging the waterways, that had been blocked over the years, thereby, contributing to over-flooding in certain parts of Warri.
The images one see on the screen had revealed beyond doubt that it will take an extraordinary will and doggedness of the Commissioner of that Ministry to drive home the point that any structure built on waterways must be pulled down.
And most parts of Warri are ordinarily waterlogged, but added to this human element where landlords deliberately built on the flow of water and creating artificial flooding has become so unbearable that it needed a man with animal courage, who fears no foe or friend in carrying out his duties.
The job appears a thankless one because the owners of the shanty structures who eke out their livelihood from such filthy structures will say they had approval from the Ministry of Lands and Urban Planning to erect those structures. It is their words against that of the Commissioner for Environment, who knows all nooks and cranies of Warri urban and the metropolis.
I commend the efforts of the Environment Ministry and one hopes that it is not just a photo trick for a season and soon after, we relapse to the old way of doing things.
The task is arduous and clearly dangerous, most especially, youths who are driven to greater hardship because of lack of decent accommodation who turn to the shanties built along waterways and drainages, which they call their homes.
Most of the old Warri urban deserves quick and programmed urban renewal, where taps that ran in the colonial period had remained waterless and not a single drop to drink and the heaps of wastes blocking these neglected areas had turned them into slum dwellers abode.
As the Omare team also closely followed by the governor, whose enthusiasm for the clearing of drains and wastes from the path of water had become a full-time assignment in recent weeks speaks volumes about his beatification agenda for the state.
As if the Warri experience was not pathetic enough, Sapele, the second most neglected township of yesteryears, seemed to have been completely abandoned, as if, human beings and their wastes are now competing for space to live in. Even churches had been erected in the middle of the waterways in Sapele metropolis, completely overwhelmed by elephant grasses, as if, they are the new flowers adorning Sapele streets and waterways.
Environmental degradation is an endemic problem in most low lying areas of Warri, Ughelli and Sapele and it needs a coordinated approach, not what some regard as the fire brigade tactics we see on the television screens.
We should resist the temptation to reduce the cleanliness of our towns and cities to a soap opera where innocent bystanders are treated to a weekly ritual of clearing drains and effecting the pulling down of structures and even solid buildings with perhaps, approved building plans.
We know how some people prefer building their houses in water-fronts not because of lack of other spaces to build on but in keeping with the fashion in civilized countries like the South of France or Spain.
All the same, we must give kudos to the Governor and Frank Omare for their determination to turn dirty streets and clogged waterways into flowing channels. Keep up the spirit
Chief Frank Omare’s name sends goose pimples through the spines of Deltans who have blocked our waterways and allowed wastes to overwhelm them. After wading through some of the stench-oozing waste -filled parts of Warri and Sapele, he should approach his private medical consultant in the state for his personal health. Keep dredging the blocked drains, because the reward for hard work is more work.