The Enugu capital territory development Authority ECTDA has said that removal of illegal structures constructed on sanitary drains in Uwani and it’s environs will commence shortly.
Rt. Hon, Uche Anya, the chairman of ECTDA stated this over the weekend when he held a town hall meeting with landlords, managers and caretakers of the various house in the area. He said the action became necessary following the menace of flooding in the Area which if left unchecked could lead to a very seeing disaster.
According to him “Whenever it rains, from Bigard to onwudiwe down to Robinson is flooded because the drainag through which the down pour is expected to run through have been built on these drains that were designed by Michael Okpara has been built on and this administration wants those lanes reestablished to control flooding in the city centre.
The big water way at Robinson is completely blocked and those that have built on it will be made to remove them.
The ECTDA boss further stated that because the administration of Governor Peter Mbah believes in citizens engagement “we went to agree with you on the best to carry out this exercise with human face but the right thing must be done regardless.
After this meeting anyone that has built on this channels is expected to demolish and remove the illegal structures by themselves because if we”re forced to remove it, the affected house will be sealed and the owner of the property will refund the cost of such removal.
Some of the residents that spoke during the meeting commended the government for their approach to the issue while others urged them to conduct an on-the-spot assessment and mark affected buildings because some of them were too young to know if the properties they inherited violates this directives.
Hon Anya took some of the residents around to show them examples of this violation. During this inspection exercise, a building which was built under electric line was marked for removal.
