As the rainy season approaches, Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Yahaya, has warned against indiscriminate dumping of refuse and blocking of waterways in the Gombe metropolis.

This was as the Project Director of TRIACTA, a major road contractor in the state, Imran Khan listed challenges in building a township road network against those of Trunk A federal roads.

According to Khan, working on federal roads, there are often lots of space to manoeuvre and work.

His words: “The strategy for working in the township is different from working in built-up areas with heavy traffic and pedestrians, and the biggest challenge you face there is compensation.

“Most buildings in the metropolis are built without plans and layouts. So when you are working, you see unimaginable things. Sometimes you see a septic tank that you can’t imagine would be on the right of way.”

Khan explained that pipelines and boreholes that were not originally planned for were scattered in some areas.

“Despite all the challenges of sceptic tanks, pipelines and other things hampering our smooth operations at Kagarawal/Malam Inna road, the government paid almost N300 million as compensation for 4.3km road,” he added.

Urging the people to avoid building houses or stalls on waterways and dumping refuse in drainages, he warned: “This obstructs the free flow of water, which may result in catastrophic flooding.”

He described the governor’s promise to construct a link road parallel to gully erosion sites to ease the movement of goods and services in the area as commendable.

“It as a selfless expense on the part of the government,” he noted.

Meanwhile, as the governor inspected the erosion control and road projects in the state capital, he warned soil excavators to desist henceforth, describing it as a serious environmental problem affecting the state capital, as it has destroyed properties worth several millions of naira and disrupted businesses.

There are over 200 active gullies across Gombe State and most of them are within the state capital, the governor explained.

“We have already executed the Gombe State University-Malam Inna erosion control works, in collaboration with the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) to address severe erosion problems in the short term, reduce vulnerability to soil erosion and climate variability in the medium term, such as our afforestation programme, the Gombe Goes Green Project,” he said.