Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
Traders at the popular Building Materials International Market, in Ogidi, Anambra State, are currently counting their losses over the submerging of some cars and shopping plazas around the market by flood.
According to traders who spoke to newsmen, it was not the first time with such an experience but the recent heavy rainfall compounded the problem as goods worth millions of naira including six cars were destroyed in the disaster.
Narrating their ordeals to journalists, the President-General of the market, Chief Jude Nwankwo, blamed the flood menace on the building of structures and shanties along drainage outlets constructed by the market under his watch.
He solicited the intervention of Governor Chukwuma Soludo and the commissioners for Works and Housing to probe the allocation of lands to private developers around the market.
Nwankwo further appealed to the State government to carry out a reclamation exercise on the gully erosion site behind the Ogidi building material market which remotely serves as the source of the flood during heavy rain downpours.
He said: “The man-made problem by some members of the market who built on drainage is the major factor of this disaster. I am pleading for the Governor to embark on a demolition exercise of shanties and illegal structures in and around the market as had been carried out in other flood-prone areas in the state.
“All attempts made to persuade the developers of these properties and land have been met with stiff resistance so I can only appeal to the Government to intervene otherwise the situation may degenerate into a bigger problem as it is.
“I believe that Soludo’s administration is friendly to commerce and traders in Anambra and I am confident that measures will be taken to forestall future occurrences.
“I urge for calm and sympathize with the traders who are members of the market, I am appealing for Government intervention, especially in the area of reclamation of the land behind the market being washed away by erosion resulting into a gully which serves as a reservoir for the flood,” Nwankwo said.
Other traders who spoke to newsmen noted that it was the third time the flood incident occurred in the market and that it submerged their shops destroying goods worth millions.
They also stated that urgent action needs to be done to avert more danger especially as they are still in the rainy season.
