Poor Drainage System Main Cause of Flooding in Urban Cities
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- May 6, 2021
Poor drainage system and blocked sewage lines are the main causes of water clogging in most urban cities.
During the current heavy rainy season, many cities including Kisumu have started experiencing flooding, which has disrupted citizens’ normal lives in the city.
Images surfaced online Monday showing greater part of Kisumu City CBD flooded along Oginga-Odinga Street, with many residents blaming the contractors of not putting enough sock pits when the pavements were being put up.
Others also were blaming the behaviour of many other people who throw away their waste materials into the drainage channels, or on the pavement that get washed away into the channels.
The poorly maintained drains and shrinking of open spaces are factors contributing to the accumulation of water on roads after a heavy downpour.
In a notice issued by Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) on Monday, heavy rainfall is expected in several parts of the country with an intensity of 30mm in 24hrs.
A flooded section along Oginga-Odinga Street
Counties to expect heavy rainfall are the Lake Victoria Basin Region and counties in the Highlands West of the Rift valley.
Residents are advised to be on the lookout for potential floods.
People should avoid driving through, walking in moving water or open fields, not shelter under trees to minimize exposure to a lightning strike.
Clogging of drainage systems can be a threat to human life, leading to flooding which results in property loss. It also leads to sicknesses such as Malaria due to the breeding of mosquitoes in stagnant waters.
Residents in urban areas should behave responsibly and avoid throwing plastic wastes in drainage channels, this maintains cleanliness and prevents clogging of drainage systems.
Proper designs, constructions and maintenance practices should keep urban cities drained.
Let’s all play our parts in ensuring the safe disposal of our plastic and paper wastes while in town.
To maintain our city be cleaner, we all need to take roles of environmental stewardship, protect our environment, and change our behaviour around how we throw away the waste matter we produce.
The servicemen should also be proactive in collecting and disposing of the wastes, including having the waste bins strategically located along the various city streets and walkways.
