Normally,with the rain,we are sure of enough water for washings,cooking and sometimes drinking. It also ensures adequate water for germination or growing of the newly planted crops.

But on the other side,some who dislike the raining season here do so because it helps make most places dirty especially places that doesn't have good,accessible roads and drainages. It also inevitably causes erosion in this places,and it's the erosion that's my concern in this article.

In Offiana street Ifite-Awka,the rain has had a devastating effect. Not only does it wash away soil from one area and heap it on another, it has placed the roads in a position that endangers cars that pass through it.

How did it happen?

This has been a recurring situation over the years in that area as the lack of good roads there left the entire channelling of flood route in the hands of residents of the area who are now more reactive than proactive to the challenges being posed by flood in that area.

When it rains,the water flows from the dorsal end of the street down to the entrance and owing to the topography of the area,it easily washes away the soil surface from one portion of the road,leaving that area empty,while heaping it on another area which over time becomes supersaturated with sand that it makes the passage of cars and people difficult. It is here,where the sand is heaped, that some local sand excavators come with their tippers to take one or two trips of sand to a developer who must have already paid for the services. The tipper drivers don't normally engage in such practices as they have special areas dedicated to sand excavation where they pay a fee for each trip of sand they load but what attracts them to this unusual area is that they don't pay fees and their removing of the sand seems to be a favour for residents of that area to allow easy passage.

The residents only rise against them when they take the sand unprofessionally(which they hardly do) such that it may result to another erosion site.

But then, the erosion that is gradually creeping in owes much to the wrong channelling of flood water in the area. 

It even pulled down parts of a dwarf fence.

Of course there is no drainage in the street(as it is a new development site) but that doesn't stop the situation from being better handled. The big challenge now is how to channel the flood water well to avoid damaging the topography of the area or causing more erosion.

So far,residents of the area have resorted to making use of empty bags of cement which they fill-up with sand and then place them at strategic positions to help check the flood.

This is how it works when the sand-filled cement bags are placed at those strategic points, it helps check erosion by waging the sand washed away by the flood water in another location such that after the rain,it would have held enough sand that will restore the topography of the area and divert the flood to another location. This has been working for them,though it requires periodic checks, but it's their local solution to such challenges. It's not just their own solution to such problems,it's a general local solution to such challenges in Nigeria when the government has not taken notice.

But it's not been entirely fruitful as it will always cause some obstructions on the way.

Nonetheless, I feel there can be a better solution to this challenge which is to try and find a way to channel the flood water properly even though the topography of the area may make it difficult.

I am already in touch with the people concerned and I am looking to joining their next general meeting or discussing privately with the leader of residents of the area who I have been able to identify.

I am so glad that I can be part of the solution to the challenge of this area.