Opinion

Paying The Heavy Price Of Reckless In-Filling Of Floodwater Sinks

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<p><&excl;-- BEGIN THEIA POST SLIDER --><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"rKyKw7lO" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Mahmoud Abba Phd<&sol;p><div class&equals;"GBGBE9pg" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>The scale and magnitude of destructions caused by excessive run-off from rainwater in Kano city within the last few weeks are not news to anybody&period; We are witnessing how&comma; whenever there is continuous down pour for some hours&comma; almost every road&comma; street&comma; market and residential neighbourhood in the metropolis become heavily submerged by overland flow&period; This inflicts a lot of pains to the city’s residents as they suffer heavy traffic gridlock&comma; loss of lives&comma; properties and other valuables&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Climate change&comma; lack of adequate drainages&comma; blockage of the city’s waterways and culverts by waste materials&comma; can easily be blamed as the culprits of the destructive urban flooding&period; While some of these may be guilty of the offence&semi; however more than any other thing else&comma; systematic disappearance of the city’s major urban flood water sinks is responsible for the problem&period; Because even with adequate and good drainage channels and culverts&semi; there will still be flooding&comma; if the water has nowhere to naturally percolate or is not properly dammed for subsequent utilization&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the last one decade&comma; the city’s authorities have increasingly exhibited significantly high level of disregard to the principle of Environmental Acceptability when it comes to erecting buildings especially for commercial uses&period; Many building structures in the metropolis are not environmentally sustainable because they were sited right on the existing green spaces such as parks&comma; gardens and other forms of urban greeneries&period; While other building structures were erected on vacant lands such as the premises of mosques&comma; parking spaces&comma; market lanes and squares&comma; and premises of government offices&period; These have not only distorted the original city’s plan&comma; but in many instances were injurious to the physical environment due to the severe consequences they pose to the city’s natural and artificial drainage systems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad1" id&equals;"quads-ad1" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"2es9Wrco" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;" &NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"6550225277"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;nigeriantracker&period;com&sol;2022&sol;09&sol;01&sol;kwankwaso-attack-and-the-precariousness-of-political-parochialism&sol;">Kwankwaso Attack And The Precariousness Of Political Parochialism<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The examples of reckless destructions of the city’s floodwater sinks in the name of development are numerous&period; In the year 2016 we witnessed the disheartening conversion of the last and the largest two of the 19 city parks and gardens at Kundila and Tarauni quarters into commercial&comma; educational and religious uses&period; This was then followed by the allocation of some portions of the Eid ground at Kofar Mata for construction of shopping complexes&period; Subsequently&comma; the city wall’s vegetation and ponds between Qofar Famfo and Kofar Gadon Kaya&comma; and around Kofar Ruwa were cleared and in their places shopping structures&comma; mini stadium and filling stations were built&period; The premises of Kano Radio Corporation at Takuntawa&comma; the frontage of Gidan Zakka&comma; a section of Kano State Polytechnic&comma; a segment of the Ministry for Rural and Community Development were all cleared and built-up&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A substantial part of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Promise ditch&comma;” behind Jujin Labbu Stores at Rijiyar Zaki area was already filled-up for residential and commercial uses&period; Another ditch at Kuntau area behind Rijihar Zaki Motor Park was completely reclaimed and converted into residential plots&period; Not to speak of the structures arbitrarily built on lanes&comma; squares&comma; public conveniences&comma; entrance gates&comma; parking spaces and mosques at Kwari&comma; Wambai&comma; Rimi and Sabon Gari markets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is clear that the authorities are hiding behind the motto of physical and economic developments to convert every available open space to buildings&period; They deliberately ignore the fact that open spaces constitute an important physical component of every city in the world&period; They pay no heed to the various ecological services provided by the green areas&period; These include their functions as wind breakers&comma; reduction of raindrop impact&comma; and improvement of the infiltration capacity of the soils thereby minimizing overland flow and ultimately recharging the underground water reservoir of the city&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For many years&comma; all words of admonishment from academicians and professionals fell on deep ears&period; The citizenry of the city watched helplessly as they have to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;drink the gruel the way it is mixed for them&period;” Now the entire metropolis is paying the heavy price of these environmentally unsustainable physical projects&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mahmud Abba&comma; PhD<br &sol;>&NewLine;mabba&period;geog&commat;buk&period;edu&period;ng<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>1&sol;09&sol;2022<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;-- END THEIA POST SLIDER -->&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad5" id&equals;"quads-ad5" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"autorelaxed" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1004305389"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad3" id&equals;"quads-ad3" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;

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