Not less than eight erosion-endangered streets that have the erosion ravaged Ovom Street in Ogbor-Hill, Aba North Local Government have been recovered fully by the Abia State government.
New Telegraph reports that at the Ovom Erosion Control Project at Ovom Street, the gully erosion which was 15-18 feet deep at some points and about 30 metres wide, has been covered with the laterite soil with double drainages on both sides of the road.
Engineer Anyim Anthony, site engineer of Ovom Road Erosion Control and a director with OK and JOEL Engineering Services Limited, the company in charge of the project, said that the main aim was to control the devastating erosion that has chased many residents from their homes.
He said that the company started by filling up the worn away areas with laterite soil, which, as you can see now, we’ve gotten to the level where the existing ground was before.
“We’ve done a sizeable drainage that’s 1.2 by 1.2 metre, to contain and control the floodwater that has been a problem here. Now, all these streets, about seven to eight of them, you see have works ongoing.
“What we’re doing is to create better access roads and drainage that will help to carry floodwaters from those streets into the main flood control drainage that we’ve built already.
“We are aware that the floodwaters from the streets are contributing to the erosion eating up the place. So, we’re doing 750 by 750 drainages from those streets that will eventually empty into the 1.2 by 1.2 metre drainage that will eventually take the floodwaters into the nearby river there.
“We believe this is enough because we’re in the better part of the rainy season, and there’s not much erosion when it rains. So, by the middle of next week, we’ll start concrete pavement, which we’ll use to finally seal the fate of the erosion menace here in this area completely.”
On the time limit to deliver the project, Anyim said, “We’ll do the concrete pavement from the point of the erosion to the connection point with Pepple’s road, and as you can see, our batching plant is ready.
“So, once we start the concrete pavement, in less than two months, the whole place will be ready for use.”
