Flood Committee Donates N5m for Desilting Efforts, Reiterates Calls for Multinationals Input in Erosion, Flood Control
The Technical Committee on Drainage, Flood Management and Control in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State has embarked on desilting of drainages and evacuation of obstructions to water flows around Bonny.
Chairman of the Committee, Dr Fubara Dan-Jumbo told Kristina Reports on Tuesday, July 7, 2026 that he donated the sum of five million Naira to assuage the lack of funding to the committee to enable the successful execution of its desilting efforts across the town.
He regretted what he referred to as the “complete neglect by the international oil and gas companies (IOCs) on the island in responding to the flood menace ravaging the local government area.
“The flooding issue is directly linked to the coming of the IOCs into Bonny, their projects, personnel and infrastructure has put severe pressure on the island, and yet they do not care that the community is going under because of flooding.”
“Different aspects of the community are submerged in flood any time it rains and we have reached out to them to support the efforts to address this flooding issue but to no avail, they have turned deaf ears to the plight of the community.”
“We are still calling on them to do something because if they don’t, if they continue to pretend that all is well, it will get to the point where everyone will come to their facilities to seek shelter and then their facilities will also be affected and there will be nowhere else to run to.”
Speaking further, he regretted that the committee was not been funded, a situation, he said has hindered it from discharging its mandate, urging the local government and other relevant stakeholders to urgently address the funding challenge being faced by the committee.
Dr. Dan-Jumbo also advised residents of the various communities in Bonny to desist from dumping refuse in the drainages but instead take them to designated places for waste collection, warning that blocked drainages are a recipe for flooding.
He also admonished them against unwholesome practices such as building on water channels, leaving electrical appliances on when not in use and defecating inside the drainages, pointing out that such have lethal consequences and public health implications.
He called on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Rivers State Government and Bonny Local Government to rise to the occasion of tackling the flooding menace in the area, especially, given the recent predictions of more and heavier flooding by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet).
He averred that setting up a committee on flooding is good but ensuring a follow-through mechanism that ensures the committee is adequately funded and provided with relevant resources to effectively discharge its mandate is key.
The seasoned entrepreneur also used the opportunity to applaud the Chairman of Bonny LGA for activating the Bonny Fire Station, saying that the quick response by the station in the early hours of Tuesday, July 7, 2026 to contain a fire incident in at the Ntamoku Ayambo Pipeline Estate is worthy of commendation.
“That fire station is visionary initiative by the LGA Chairman, and today that vision of his saved lives. It was the first outing by the fire station and they successfully averted a calamity that would have affected several lives.”
“I must that if we were waiting for the fire service guys from the multinationals, they would have delayed until a disaster occurs, the same way they are unbothered by the plight of Bonny people with regards to the flooding issue. Thank God for the Chairman for coming up with this idea.”
He encouraged the Chairman and his administration to do more with the financial allocation being received by the Bonny Local Government to improvement infrastructure, empower the people, entrench good governance and address challenges being faced in the area.
