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The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Ogun Osun River Basin Development Authority, Dr Deji Ashiru, has stressed that the Federal Government is committed to ending the perennial flooding affecting the residents of Isheri in Ifo Local Government Area of the state.
This is just as Ashiru urged the Isheri residents to stop blaming Oyan Dam for their travails saying, “The bitter truth is that without Oyan Dam, Isheri which is on a flood plain and some parts of Abeokuta, would have been submerged.”
The MD disclosed this at an engagement with the residents of the community on Tuesday.
Ashiru said the major contributory factor to the perennial flooding at Isheri is the identified ungated 52 tributaries that flow into the downstream of Ogun River causing a rise in water levels.
He explained that the Oyan and Ogun Rivers are transboundary in nature coming from Porto Novo in Benin Republic and that many times the rise in water levels of these rivers was because it rained in Porto Novo and not because of water releases from Oyan Dam.
Ashiru said the agency had been releasing about 17.4m cubic of water each day for about two months to control the surge of water into the Oyan Dam and prevent its collapse.
He said, “The people of Isheri should consider Oyan Dam as a blessing rather than attacking it because without this dam holding down the surge of water flowing down, there won’t be Isheri and some communities in Abeokuta which are on the path of the water.
“Oyan Dam is built to control flooding and erosion. I have said it over and again that there are 52 ungated tributaries downstream of Oyan Dam which is the major cause of the flooding we are experiencing in Isheri.
“The only haven they have here in Isheri is the gated Oyan Dam which controls the amount of water flowing upstream. What happens is this, Oyan River is a transboundary, the Ogun River is equally a transboundary river that flows into the country from Porto Novo.
“Even if there is no rain in Nigeria, once there is heavy rain in Porto Novo, the water level increases. While the one that flows into the Oyan Dam which is gated is controlled and released gradually, the one that flows into the Ogun River and the 52 tributaries flow straight down. I am saying that if not for Oyan Dam, the Isheri community might not be because this is the Dam which controls the erosion and flooding coming from the upstream.”
Ashiru said that to solve this flooding problem, there might be the need to build smaller dams to collect the water coming from the 52 tributaries.
While restating the commitment of the Federal Government to solve the problem, the MD said he just received another letter from the Senate asking him for the way forward on the challenge.
He said as a palliative, the Federal Government would start the dredging of the Ogun River next week to increase its capacity to accommodate the increase in water level.
Ashiru said he had equally written to President Bola Tinubu and the management of the National Ecological Fund adding that with the support of the Isheri residents, the flooding challenge in the area would soon be a thing of the past.
One of the residents in the flooded area, Rev Emmanuel Oluwayemi, said plans were in the pipeline to sue the government if it failed to find a way out of the flooding challenge.
Oluwayemi said he bought his property from the government and that he spent up to N8m last year to renovate his house after the flood receded.
The clergyman said if by next year the government failed to address the plight of the residents, nobody should blame them if they sued it for failing to provide a conducive atmosphere for the residents who bought properties from them.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the Ogun/Osun River Basin Association, Olanrewaju Falade, called for more fruitful engagement to find a permanent solution to the issue of flooding in the community.
Falade encouraged regular communication and exchange of data from time to time on the release of water from the Oyan Dam.
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