Worried about the flooding of residential areas which left many displaced, Kaduna State Governor, Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, has called for the dredging of River Kaduna to avert future ocurrence.
Yakowa made the call yesterday in Kaduna after an aerial assessment tour of the affected areas in company of Ministers of Environment, Hadiza Mailafiya, Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe as well as the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA), Sani Sidi.
The tour to Kaduna was part of the responsibility of the technical committee set up by the Federal Government to assess and determine the extent of damage caused by flood in certain parts of the country.
According to Yakowa, silting of the river and building of structures by the river bank, has over the years, affected its free flow as well as made the river to take other course in the form of tributaries that flow out as against flowing into it.
He stressed that after the rainy season, the state Ministries of Works and Transport, Environment and other relevant agencies would be constituted into a committee to investigate the erection of structures that may have blocked drainage channels,?? adding that necessary action would be taken to correct the anomaly.
According to him, the dredging? would provide the right channel for the river to flow easily, describing the silting of the river as well as the heavy rains that resulted to the flood.