By Joe Effiong, Uyo
For residents of Eket, the oil city of Akwa Ibom State, these are not the best of times.
For the past six years, the city has been disorganised by the prolonged attempts to ‘modernise’ it through the state’s snail-speed effort to upgrade its physical infrastructure and bring it up to standard as the Akwa Ibom South senatorial district headquarters.
But, as residents were set to heave a sigh of relief, enjoying some parts of the town where construction work had begun to make some sense from the construction muddle, the rains set in and some sections of the town, which were never part of the modernisation hotchpotch, could not withstand the flood.
Residents of such areas like Mkpok Road, Umana Ndon, Usung Udoito, Paul Idiong and Uqua, especially property owners, apart from living in the fear of being swept away, have been counting their losses and unexpected expenses in their efforts to save their buildings from collapsing.
So far, it is only the landslide at Mkpok, which had since divided the road into two with a deep gully, making it impossible for commuters to pass, that has received government’s intervention efforts, where a construction company has been commissioned in to do some remedial works.
Mr. Bill Usoh, the site engineer for the construction firm, said the reconstruction of the failed roads and culverts started penultimate Sunday.
Usoh said the company had constructed a pedestrian bridge for people to pass through while reconstructing the culverts. He projected that the work should be completed within a month.
But while life may soon return to normal in the area, except those whose properties have already been submerged, those in other sections of Eket have either resorted to self-help or continued to wait for divine intervention.
In this category are residents of Umana Ndon and Ukwa Road, where the magnificent The Apostolic Church building had to be propped up by reinforcement of the surrounding basement bordering the canal to save it from caving in.
Martins Ibe, the engineer handling the work, said the church and its neighbours have spent about N10 million to protect their properties and road from being washed away.
Ibe explained: “The church consulted me and asked me to come and see what was happening because after the cleaning up of the canal, and the stumps and natural breakers that were there before, the canal began to get deeper and threaten the surrounding properties. So, the foundation began to be threatened because nobody knew the extent to what might happen in the near future. When it began to go wider and wider, we decided to do shoring.
“From what we have done, it’s something that will last for years. The only problem we are having is the financial constraint because there are other measures we could have applied, but the cost implication is high. Though the amount was not cashed out in bulk, in my estimation, the resources that have been sunk in there is close to N10 million, by the church and the owner of the opposite building.”
The owner of a storey building adjacent the church, Pastor Nathaniel Warrie, lamented that the self-help effort to protect the building from collapsing has not only drained his resources but has equally plunged him into debts.
He said: “Everybody knows that things are very costly these days. So for me to put in such an amount, it has affected even my children’s school fees. It has affected so many things because I didn’t plan for it; but it happened so suddenly that if I were not proactive, I would have lost this building after that heavy rainfall.
“I had to secure that place by calling on the engineer to come and give me the scope. I didn’t have but I had to borrow money from friends in order for us to do the job.”
Warrie said when the incident happened, he and the church had gone to meet the officials of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to come and intervene. But he said the only thing they received was a mere promise to visit which has yet to be fulfilled.
“When it rains, we come out to watch the flood and see how it would affect the place. We are living in fear. Now I don’t have money to continue with the job. So, I have told the engineer to stop work. Even the last five bags of cement I bought are still there. There is no money for granite.
“We were told the government was coming. I don’t know when they are coming or what they are coming here to do; whether to come and take over what we are doing or to dismantle and rebuild to be of standard.”
Apart from protecting his house, Warrie said he had also sunk in close to N1 million to work on the road passing by his house, otherwise the road would also have collapsed like that of Mkpok .
“So, if the government is actually coming, I’m expecting something from the government because I’m doing their job anyway. They should give me a refund. I have sunk so much money there. So if the government comes in, I expect that they would compensate me for what I have done to save the road because it would have affected the entire road if we had not intervened,” Warrie said.
Another property owner who has also spent much money to save his building from being washed away by the flood is Mr Udo Hanson Akpan, whose house at No 1, Paul Idiong Close, by Idua Road, has also become a problem.
He said: “I heard in the news that the government has awarded contracts of billions of naira and that all the erosion in Eket would be taken care of. But up till now they have not shown up yet. I know they have started in Mkpok. Whether they will come here, I don’t know.
“When they heard the news people came to congratulate me that at last they have awarded the contract. But we haven’t seen any action since then.”
Akpan said he has spent a lot to protect his house from being pulled into the canal. He said the problem started last rainy season.
“I don’t know what to tell the government. I don’t have anybody there. I have spent millions of naira. And the worst thing is that when I buy things to reinforce the foundation of the building, these boys would come and steal it. Things are very expensive. Those baskets that you are seeing, each of them cost N20, 000. Yet they will come and pick it,” Akpan lamented.
The state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Charles Udoh, said the government would intervene to ensure that necessary measures are put in place to solve the erosion problems in all the affected areas in the state.