Several months after flood washed off Tiga Dam and made the road deplorable, both motorists and other road users have been left stranded. The rainy season is fast approaching and there have been no succur for motorists as the road is yet to receive the needed attention. Daily Trust on Sunday reports.
Seven months after the overflow of Tiga Dam, which cut off the main road behind it, sacked several farmlands and almost washed away the Sarkin Kogi bridge, neither rehabilitation of the road nor reconstruction of the bridge has commenced.
As this year’s rainy season is about to set in, the condition of the road is changing from bad to worse.
“When it starts raining we stop going to school because of the bad road. After the overflow of the dam last year, water blocked our way to school,” Abdulrahman Ya’u, a student of Government Technical College, Rurum, who goes to school from Tiga, said.
Following road blockage as a result of excess water, students of the technical college from the area were ferried in a canoe to ensure the continuation of their studies. But Ya’u said, “Using canoe is very dangerous as sometimes it capsizes with people.”
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Ahmad Sani, another student of the college, lamented that though the floodwater had dried, the road was still in bad condition, making movement to the school everyday frightful, especially at the point where the flood cut off the road.
Sani added that usually, students go to school on either tricycle or bicycle, both of which he described very unsafe on the road, especially at its present condition.
He said a tricycle could fall off, and at some point, students would have to push it to continue going.
He lamented, “Some of our friends have broken their arms and legs while riding bicycles on this road. They stumbled and got injured. Even our teachers are always cautioning us to be very careful on this road. We are calling on the government to rehabilitate the road to ease our suffering.”
Apart from the students, residents of communities around the area also complained about the negligence the bridge and the road have suffered. The two serve as the link between Bebeji and Rano local government areas. Also, Rurum, Tiga, Durmawa, Boys Quarters, Sarkin Kogi, Sabuwar Kaura, Ruwan Kanya, Gidan Tsamiya, Doka, Gargai and Rantan are some of the communities that directly or indirectly depend on the road for economic and social activities.
Kabiru Yunusa, a resident of the area, said that since the road was cut off last year, rainy season is approaching but nothing has been done to save it from collapsing completely.
He said, “We have experienced many hardships along this road. Many challenges have affected our business activities because we have to use this road to convey our goods from our villages to major markets in towns and cities.
“We are calling on the government to come to our aid and repair this road. When it starts raining now, no matter how little, this place cannot be accessed anymore. Even the slippery nature of the place cannot allow people to pass with their vehicles.”
On his part, Kabiru Inusa Tiga, who seemed to have lost hope that rehabilitation of the road would commence anytime soon, prayed to the almighty God to bring someone who could look into the problem and solve it.
“We have really suffered here. Our farms were washed away. Look at how the rocky surface has been eaten up by floodwater. This will tell you how serious the situation is. The place is looking scary; and in a month or two, rain will commence. Our leaders do not focus on anything that is of the people’s interest, all they are doing is politics,” Inusa alleged.
In addition to the rocky surface of the road, the bridge is on the verge of collapse as its basement has been eaten up due to heavy force of water passing through it. The rods holding it have broken away, but commuters are still using it despite the fact that it is very risky.
Daily Trust on Sunday reports that residents and commuters are still suffering from the trauma of the previous devastation, even as another rainy season sets in.
Drivers get stuck
In a bid to get to Kano on time and offload goods, Auwalu Musa, a truck driver missed his way and his vehicle got stuck at the point where the road was cut off.
Musa, whose attention was on how to remove his truck from the ditch, told our correspondent that the bad road contributed to a lot of accidents. He called on the government to rehabilitate the road and construct new ones to ease vehicular movement across the country.
Another driver, Salihu Haruna, who got involved in an accident a day earlier, almost at the same spot, said he had to pay N6,000 to remove grains from the vehicle and N9,000 to pull it from the gully.
He said, “It was in an attempt to avoid collision with another driver at night that I found myself in this situation. The people around said I was not the first victim of this road. Many have lost their lives due to the bad condition of the place.”
How residents earn a living on the road
Salisu Inuwa, one of the people who eke out a living at the place where the road was cut off, now popularly called ‘Tiga Bakin Boda,’ said he was forced to engage in such activities when he became a victim of the flood that destroyed the road. He explained that his farms were washed away and he started trading in foodstuff, which he no longer does due to lack of capital.
He said that immediately after the dam overflowed, the road was no longer accessible. But they worked hard and their efforts reduced the suffering people were going through as motorists and commuters were able to pass through the area.
To earn a living, Inuwa and his colleagues now assist people to pass through the road, and in the process, they are appreciated, either in cash or kind. When motorists get stuck, they help and push it out of danger. Sometimes they also stay on the road overnight to serve as guards over vehicles that broke down.
“Some of us are drivers, so they bring their experiences to help motorists pass through the road.
“It is just our little way of assisting people, although some give us N20, N50, N100 or more. That’s how we survive. We were 9 in number but now four. We resume as early as 8am and close by 11pm everyday,” Inuwa said.
He added that a politician from the area provided some token to help in conveying passengers on a canoe for some days. That was when the water was still there. But since then, nobody has done anything again to assist the people.
“The vice president-elect was here. The governor of the state and other politicians from the two local government areas affected also visited during the incident. They saw the situation, but sadly, nothing has been done, even as the rainy season is fast approaching,” he said.
Daily Trust on Sunday recalls that when the dam overflowed in September last year, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, visited the area and called for the closure of the Sarkin Kogi bridge to ensure the safety of motorists and pedestrians.
Also, when the vice president-elect, Kashim Shettima, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and his deputy, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna visited the place, they pledged government’s commitment to the protection of lives and property of citizens, but so far, nothing has been done to ameliorate the suffering of motorists and pedestrians on this road.
