Agriculture
THE Lower Niger River Basin Authority (LNRBA) has advised civil engineers in Nigeria to always factor construction of drainages during road constructions.
Dr Adeniyi Aremu, the Managing Director of the authority, gave the advice during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Ilorin.
Aremu explained that when you don’t respect the rights of water and rivers, they are bound to cause flooding resulting to destruction of lives and properties.
He observed that humans and water have their respective rights and that if humans infringe on the rights of rivers and waterways, there is bound to be calamity.
“Water too is a road user and a pedestrian. It has to move and you must give it its right to move or it will destroy the roads,” he warned.
The managong director asserted that some problem peculiar in Nigerian cities is that some cities evolved before the Land Use Act, which means there was no proper planning.
He explained that with no proper planning, there was no provision for drainanges as arteries, adding that by its nature, water must flow from one location to another .
“The water will join together and form a body of water from the river and eventually empty somewhere and if that channel is blocked, that’s where we have problem. Those channels must be adequately designed.
“The channels designed must be able to accomodate run-offs,” he explained.
Aremu pointed out that the flow of water is a natural process, stressing that at times there are too much water that causes flooding and other times there is drought.
According to him, humans have to adapt to these natural phenomenon, but must also do everything possible to ensure that the rights of nature is obeyed and cared for.
He added that the aurhority is the custodian of rivers in Kwara and Kogi States, and ensures erosion control through designing drainage systems, dams and blunders, among others.
He pointed out that based on studies and results, the experts in the authority calibrates and design drainage systems and other water channeling systems.
Aremu further advised that, to reduce the rate of deaths and destruction caused by floodings in the different parts of the country, regulations must be followed and set-backs from the rivers must be maintained.
“If you have enormous amount of water, overflows and then if you dump refuse into water ways, it blocks the water, causing overflows and leads to deaths and destruction of properties,” he warned. (NAN)
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Tags: Adeniyi Aremu LNRBA
