The FCT administration has declared the Trademore Estate in Lugbe area of FCT a disaster zone, that needs immediate action to remedy further loss of lives and properties.
This is coming barely a week after flood submerged not less than 116 houses in Trademore Estate.
The Federal Capital Territory Authority said it would come up with a plan of evacuating people from those areas, to ensure that they prevent further casualties.
Olusade Adesola, Permanent secretary of FCTA, who made this known yesterday, said the flooding incident at Trademore Estate was among the issues reviewed at the FCT Monthly Security Committee meeting, to consider the effort that needs to be put in place to mitigate property damage and casualty from flooding in the FCT.
The permanent secretary, who led senior FCTA officials and heads of security and paramilitary agencies on an assessment tour of the affected area, said they were surprised that only two days after the flood, people have returned to some of the properties. He however expressed the preparedness of the FCTA to deal with the emergency situation with the people’s safety as paramount consideration.
“We were quite amazed at the level of flooding that occurred in Trademore Estate. More particular is the risk that people took – to build in such a low-level plain. While on the road, we saw that even the roof of the houses was below the road level, which makes them vulnerable to flooding.
“The task force will immediately swing to action to make recommendations on urgent issues or attention that must be given to the area. As we cannot fold our hands and allow the destruction to continue. We were amazed that only two days after the flood, people returned to some of the properties.
“So, in a couple of days, we will be taking appropriate action. Having seen the extent of the flooding, we hereby declare the Trademore Estate area a disaster zone that needs immediate action to remedy further damages and loss of lives and properties.
“So, we will look at a programme of evacuating people from those areas, to ensure that we prevent the loss of lives and property. For the rest of the year, rain predictions show that there might still be more heavy rains, which means that there could be damages and casualties. And the FCTA will do everything possible within its power to ensure that we mitigate such occurrence,” he said.
