The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and the Ecological Fund Office (EFO) plan to curtail the erosion in Gwarimpa estate, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The agency is also looking into other estates that have major issues that have to do with erosion, particularly in Lugbe in FCT and FESTAC in Lagos.
FHA Managing Director, Prof. Mohammed Al-Amin who disclosed this in Abuja, observed that due to the amount of water passing through the Gwarimpa estate, there are active erosion sites. He added that FHA has written to the EFO to assist in addressing the problem.
Tracing the history of the problem, Al-Amin explained that the entire FCT is sitting on an undulating terrain and when FCT was designed in the early 70s, the problem of climate change was not as accentuated as now.
He said, ‘’With climate change, this is normal theory that hot place will become hotter, wet places will become wetter. The entire source of the drainage system of theseregion takes its origin from Jos plateau State. We have River Gurara that originated from there, it comes down and it flows into Usma River and we then FCT and then Usama dam. If Jos is very wet water would not fill into River Gurara, it would fill into Usma River and we would have excess water in that dam.
“Instead of allowing that river to over power the dam and then get into the town, it is better to open the speed way. You open that speed way, if it is excessive and takes days, the entire smaller rivers, in 71/72 at architect did not take note of it and some houses would have problem, so with that some design consideration would have to be made. If there is a structure that is close in distance, we have to rejig it. So this is what we are trying to do’’.
Al-Amin who noted that the authority wants to mobilze the resident’s of Gwarimpa estate and get their understanding on the road maintenance that is about to commence and pleaded with them to cooperate with the engineers.
He noted that FHA would be carrying out the road maintenance in conjunction with the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the Abuja Metropolitan Management Agency.
According to him, ‘’ FHA is the developer and owner of Gwarimpa Estate, some of the facilities like drainages are maintained by FCT.
It is the responsibility of the FCDA to provide roads and drainages, FHA used loans to build roads and drainages with the understanding that its will be reimbursed but it is yet to be reimbursed.
Even though the estate is owned by FHA, some of the facilities like drainages are maintained by FCT.”
He observed that during one of the interactions with Gwarimpa residents, they complained about traffic congestion, adding that sector sectors are supposed to be developed by the FCDA but has not been developed since the last 20 years due to some encumbrances ‘’, he added. The Guardian
