The cause of the recent flooding that wreaked havoc on parts of Lagos and Ogun states has been widely linked to the waters released from the Oyan Dam located in Abeokuta area of Ogun. But a visit to the facility reveals much more, writes AKEEM LASISI, with photographs by Odutayo Odusanya. In a wide world of its own, the Oyan Dam nestles opulently like an alternative sea. But for the sturdy walls and other devices holding its gently dancing water from flowing off beat, anyone without a knowledge of geography or unfamiliar with the dam‘s history would hardly think that it is a man-made river.



To a water freak, the temptation is even there to jump inside and begin to swim. But that would be a naked risk, if not a sporting suicide. For in terms of depth, the Oyan Dam can be about the height of some 20 storey buildings erected on top of one another. Speaking in figures, the lake covers 4,000 hectares and has a catchment area of 9,000 km. It has a crest length of 1044 m, height, 30.4 m and gross storage capacity of 270 million m. More importantly, the dread that had, in the past six weeks, developed around the name, ‘Oyan Dam’, would not encourage anyone who witnessed the flood that ravaged several parts of Ogun and Lagos States to venture too near the artificial river.



Ironically, this morning, Monday, October 25, the dam is calm - almost too calm for the image it has so acquired when many people linked the cause of the floods that have left many people homeless and turned them into unintended guests at a relief camp built for the victims by Lagos State government. Only two weeks ago, a young woman, Uche Victor, gave birth to a girl at the emergency home in Agbowa, Epe Local Government Area of the state. Some nine months ago, when Uche and her husband were concretising the agenda to have the baby, it could never have crossed their minds that it would be born far away from their home or their family hospital.



Yet, as a Yoruba proverb says, if a death that threatened to kill one eventually ends up seizing only one‘s cap, there is still a lot to rejoice about. For the couple‘s case is nothing compared to the tragedy the flood inflicted on Ugochi Ude and her parents. The school girl lost her life in the flood.



Damned from giving its best



Located in Abeokuta North Local Government Area of Ogun State - about 20 km north-west of Abeokuta, the Oyan River Dam crosses the Oyan River, a tributary of the Ogun River. It was built in 1981 by the Sheu Shagari administration to primarily supply raw water to Lagos and Abeokuta. Commissioned by Shagari on March 29 1983, the dam is operated by the Ogun Osun River Basin Authority, whose head office is on Alabata Road in Abeokuta area. The dam also has potential for use in irrigation and power generation, but the turbines installed there have never functioned.



While the Oyan Dam may have lived up to expectation in the area of water supply, with the Public Relations Manager of the Ogun Osun River Basin Authority, Mr. Femi Dokunmu, noting that it gives this to Oyo and Ogun water corporations at a subsidised rate, there is little or no evidence that it has been given the opportunity to boost irrigation. Unlike what obtains in the North where many farmers plant across the year, making a full use of the dams that punctuate its arid land, farming by irrigation is not a popular tradition down South. The dam was intended to support 3,000 hectares in the first phase, but the land has since inception been lying fallow. Only this year, the federal government budgeted N43m for construction of the gravity irrigation scheme at the dam and N11m for dam operations.



Yet, the most perennially redundant segment of the dam are the three turbines of 3 megawatts each installed in it. They have never been put to use. Dokunmu, however, says that this is not in any way the fault of the operators of the dam. According to him, the running of the turbine is the responsibility of the Ministry of Power and Steel.



It is not the first time that the dam‘s activity would be linked to flooding. Right from inception, it dawned on its operators that some 22 villages in the neighbourhood had to be relocated. Hence, OORBA built Abule Titun, a then enviable settlement for indigenes of Gborigi, Baba Ode, Molakun, Abule Aare, Abule Gbose Durodoye, Ageru and other villages. Today, however, the story of Abule Titun is that of grass to grace and fatally back to grass.



In May 2009, after a heavy rainfall, the dam‘s operators were forced to release exceptional amounts of water for safety reasons, causing some flooding.



Rejecting the blame



As the victims struggle to cope with life while other stakeholders continue to weigh new options, however, operators of the dam are persistently crying that it is not the cause of the woes. At the OOBRA office, Dokunmu could not hide the frustration of the management at the conclusions many have reached on the cause of the flooding.



“Let me first correct the impression that many people have as far as the recent floods on parts of Ogun and Lagos State is concerned,” Dokunmu says. “I wonder why even the media appears not to be cohesive on this issue, anyway. The flooding was not as a result of the water released from the Oyan Dam. So, when people are looking for solution, they should not be coming to Oyan Dam. The solution is beyond the dam or the Ogun Osun River Basin Authority that manages it.”



According to him, all stakeholders should realise that the affected areas had been experiencing flooding since 1963 when the dam had not been built. The topography of the affected areas, which makes many rivers empty their water into the Ogun River, heavy rainfalls and blockages on flood channels are responsible for the disaster.



He further notes that the Ogun River receives water from Iseyin, Lanlate and other towns in Oke Ogun, as a result of the topography that makes all rivers to flow accordingly. But when reminded the fact that water was definitely released from the dam, he affirms it but maintains that the cause of the flooding is deeper than this. Dokunmu is also quick to note that the fact that the floods have receded is not because water is no more being released at the dam. It is because rain has gone down, because when they were releasing water, they were not pumping it from any strange place.



He adds, “The water that goes into the dam is not from oblivion. We are even helping to regulate flood. The rain that would normally have flowed into the Ogun River is part of what the dam collects. We first capture the water and hold it for a long time - until it becomes unsafe to continue to do so. When it reaches the capacity at which it is dangerous to continue to hold it, we open the valve and release through the channel built for it. Once the water is about 63 metres high, we have to open the dam and reduce to about 61/60. Now, imagine what would have happened if the dam was not there, now that the only 3 metres being released has caused so much apprehension and distortion of facts.”



The authorities started releasing water in August. But, Dokunmu says, necessary warning was given. The timing, he notes, further corroborates the fact that it was rain that caused the flooding. According to him, heavy downpour had been ravaging parts of Abeokuta since July, with the floods it caused washing away bridges while the rivers vomited endlessly into the Ogun River.



“He adds that the river too should not have had this problem if it were able to freely empty its content into the Lagoon. But the Lagoon itself is full and overflowing. The water that should thus have been entered the Lagoon was pushed back.



Dokunmu compares the process that Oyan Dam follows to release water to that of Ikere Gorge Dam in Iseyin, Oyo State. Because the dam, whose capacity is twice that of Oyan, it is not gated, nobody needs to make any announcement before releasing water. So, nobody links the dam with flooding.



“He explains, “Once its own reservoir is full, water begins to flow out. Those overseeing it don‘t need to tell anyone that they want to open the reservoir. But because we make announcement, people say, ‘They are the ones causing the flood.”



A Geography lecturer at the University of Lagos, Dr. Alabi Soneye, has also corroborated this point, absolving Oyan Dam on the one hand, and linking the cause to climate ‘drama‘ on the other.



“What we have experienced this year is climatic drama. It is the same quantity of water that should have come in eight months now coming in four months. People have called it climate change. But it is more or less drama coming,” Soneye notes.



This is also the stand of the Meteorological Society of Nigeria, with its President, Prof. Jerome Omotosho, saying that it warned well ahead of the coming of the heavy rains. He cites attitudinal problem as what has heightened the tragedy, saying that people take even vital information for granted.



Omotosho explains, ”We predicted that most parts of the country would have reduced length of rain, and that rain would be condensed into a short period of time. We are in an age of an unusual weather, and the events unfolding are symptomatic of what we call climate change. Long before the rains came, we called a national meeting of all stakeholders to discuss the implications of the variations.”



In Abule Tuntun, life lives close to hell



The name, ‘Abule Titun’, means a new settlement. True to the name, Abule Titun used to be new and novel. Based on the low socio-economic background the villagers were coming from, and the fact that it was built some 30 years ago, the settlement was a first class estate in such a rural environment. Comprising over 100 three-bedroom flats, the architectural dream behind it, as well as the way the plan was delivered, still remains impressive despite the fact that the physical glory of the houses has dimmed.



By 1981 when the dam was first dug, flooding and threat of further disasters became the lot of the villages that surrounded it. The way the Nigeria LNG had to relocate the people of Finima, a community near Bonny in Rivers State, OORBA had to sell to the villagers the idea of their having to move. It was a hard pill for the people to swallow, based on the more-than-romantic attachment they had within their immediate places of origin, which straddles the cultural, religious and the supernatural. But because it is only a person that can keep his life that can keep his heritage, the indigenes had to open their mouths for the bitter spill.



“Ordinarily, we did not want to vacate our villages - where our fathers and forefathers lived and passed onto us,” says the Baale (Head of the village), Pa Mustapha Ogundijo. ”But when we saw the danger coming, we had to agree and move.” He adds that, at the beginning, the settlement signposted a new paradise ahead of them.



Unfortunately, all the infrastructure that could support good living and justify the river basin‘s authority investment in the village has completely broken down. While a painstakingly-tarred old but still viable road that leads to the dam is still good, the one that leads to Abule Tuntun is hardly passable. At some points, it is a network of mock gullies. At some others, it is a stretch of sharp, big, yellow stones waiting to pierce any tyre that dares to slide over it. The road is about three kilometres from the dam, but it took a taxi that took our correspondents about half an hour to get there, as the cab also had to also battle with tippers that indiscriminately scoop sands and stones from the area.



In Abule Tuntun, there is no light and there is no pipe borne water. While this is a common cross that many other millions of Nigerians are used to carrying, the case of the villagers is peculiar because they have never enjoyed the facilities despite the fact thast those materials relevant to the provision of the goodies were part of the initial plan of the village. This is evident in the fact that the wiring of every house in the village was completed before the residents moved in there in 1981/82. Although no transformer or electric pole was installed, in each house is erected a cable box, several bulbs, some of which flaunt solid and colourful lamp holders that, however, have never felt electric voltage in their existence. Apparently, the contractor who handled the aspect of the building had abandoned it for whatever reason.



This was part of the irony that kepts the Baale complaining bitterly while speaking on his experience in the village.



“There is no road,” the old man says. “There is no light. This is how we have been suffering here since. Many people have died. Many have abandoned their houses because the suffering is too much. Even when our farms yield good crops, we suffer a hell to convey them to the town.”



As a mark of the OORBA‘s good plan for the settlers, it built a school and a town hall in the settlement. But the school - Muslim School, Babaode - looks gaunt as it has largely been out of form. The hall too, which faces a dispensary said to have been built and run by Odeda Local Government Area, has been overgrown by bushes, making Ogundijo, who became the Baale three years ago, to urge government and the dam operators to urgently assist them. Curious enough, while the operators of Oyan Dam note that Abule Tuntun is in Abeokuta Local Government Area, Ogundimu and his people keep on referring to Odeda Local Government as the unit that controls the village.



He explains, ”They should save us. We live in peace among ourselves. We work diligently on our farms. We do not nurse any grudge against the workers of the dam. But even when our farms yield very well, it is too difficult for us to convey the crops to the market.”



While some of the settlers also take the advantage of the presence of the dam to fish the lake and farm vegetables along the fertile shoreline as the lake recedes in the dry season, the dam has also caused health crises for them in the past. Urinary schistosomiasis was once rampant among the villagers. Also known as bilharziasis or snail fever, schistosomiasis is a primarily tropical parasitic disease caused by the larvae of one or more of five types of flatworms or blood flukes known as schistosomes. The name bilharziasis comes from Theodor Bilharz, a German pathologist, who identified the worms in 1851. A 2009 study of levels of the disease in the Ibaro-Oyan and Abule Titun communities found high levels of infection due to use of untreated water.



Dokunmu acknowledges the fact that things are not in the best shape for the villagers. But he is, again, quick to absolve the OORBA of blame, saying provision of amenities to Abule Titun is the duty of government.



“As far as we are concerned, we have done our best by building those facilities. There is no agreement that says they have to be perpetually maintained by us.”



Birth cry from the relief camp



Since what is permanent in life is change, life has started taking shape at the relief camp floated for the victims by the Raji Fashola government of Lagos State.



Initially, there arose discordant tunes over the desirability of the camp. Some of the victims kicked against it, saying they were not prepared to live their embattled abodes. But the drama of what to happen later began to unfold when some smart folk decided to sentence themselves into the camp. They were never affected by the disaster, but they showed up, seeking to reap where they did not lose.



While this appears to have been sorted out, many of the accredited victims at the arena in Agbowa have since embraced the realities of their present station. According to one of them, who simply gave his name as James, he is already considering getting a shop in the area as it is tough navigating Ajegunle, former house and shop daily. James is a spare parts seller.



In the case of some other people, however, it is nature, which initially released the rain that got them into the camp, that has continued to decide for them. Among them is Uche, the19-year-old that just gave birth to the youngest mortal in the camp. Against all odds, Uche can now lead her campmates to sing Iyeyeriye, as juju superstar, King Sunny Ade, sings in his album titled The Child. The joy of the successful delivery has erased the memory of the flood or displacement in her.



And soon, Uche‘s daughter will get some juniors, as not less than three other women are also expectant mothers.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2010110813132431

Thanks Punch, this is a good story. Our govt should be alive to their resposibility