One Year After the Dredging: How Temidire Is Tackling Flooding, Sanitation and Old Habits

By Emmanuel Ogungbile

For several years, heavy rains raised issues amongst citizens around Temidire Bridge and traders at the neighboring Oje Market in Ibadan North-East Local Government Area of Oyo State. The watercourse had actually ended up being narrowed by collected silt, refuse and other particles, decreasing its capability to bring water throughout heavy rains. Homeowners stated the resulting flooding interfered with motion and threatened homes and companies, especially when the river overruned its banks.

The scenario started to alter in August 2025 when the Karim Adeyemi Foundation, utilizing an excavator supplied by the Ibadan North-East Local Government, started the dredging and growth of more than 100 metres of the Temidire watercourse and drain. The council consequently extended the clearance by another 100 metres at its own expenditure.

A year after the intervention, citizens spoke with for this report stated they had actually not experienced the level of flooding and river overflow that formerly accompanied durations of heavy rains. Among them, Mr Tajudeen Ayoola, remembered the stress and anxiety homeowners experienced before the dredging.

“When the rain ended up being heavy, the very first thing individuals did was to begin thinking of their valuables and how the water would impact them,” he stated. “Sometimes motion ended up being really hard since the water covered parts of the roadway. Individuals living near the river needed to monitor it whenever there was heavy rain.”

The effect reached traders at Oje Market, especially those running around Temidire Bridge. The Babaloja of Oje Market and an agent of the Companion Traders Association of Nigeria, Oyo State, Alhaji Olaosebikan, had actually formerly explained how flooding impacted industrial activities and motion.

” When the river is complete, motion is limited entirely, and this has actually severely impacted the economy of traders and locals in the location,”he stated.”Our individuals discover it hard to transfer products, and companies suffer losses.”

Throughout a September 2026 follow-up see, homeowners reported that the watercourse had actually continued to consist of the circulation of water without the level of flooding into adjacent homes and substances experienced in previous years.

The dredging is, nevertheless, just one element of the Karim Adeyemi Foundation’s activities in Temidire. Because 2024, the structure has actually carried out interventions dealing with water gain access to, sanitation and ecological obstacles, while continuing to engage citizens and keep track of making use of its tasks.

Its very first significant intervention in the neighborhood resolved access to tidy water. In December 2024, the structure commissioned an amazed borehole serving Temidire, Oje and surrounding neighborhoods.

The task consequently accentuated another difficulty determined by homeowners: insufficient access to sanitation centers. Some homeowners had actually continued to utilize the stream and surrounding locations for bathing and open defecation. Females trading at Oje Market likewise dealt with troubles accessing ideal centers for their sanitation requires.

In action, building started in April 2025 on a public toilet and restroom center in Temidire. The center makes up 6 toilets and 2 restrooms, together with a biogas system developed to process human waste and transform it into cooking gas.

The center ended up being functional in 2026, supplying citizens and traders with an option to utilizing the stream and surrounding locations for sanitation. As of the structure’s September 2026 evaluation, the biogas system had yet to produce functional amounts of cooking gas, leaving that element of the job to be completely operationalised.

The task likewise shows the function of neighborhood involvement in the shipment of regional advancement efforts. According to info offered throughout the follow-up, the structure approached a number of households for arrive at which to construct the center before the Ajobo Family Compound accepted contribute part of its land for the job. The household’s contribution offered the website for a center planned to serve homeowners and traders in the surrounding neighborhood. Its name was likewise engraved on the structure.

The land contributed by the Ajobo Family utilized for the building of the toilet

A resident explained the distinction the center had actually made, stating: “Before, we utilized the stream. Now we have someplace correct to go.”

In spite of the accessibility of the center, nevertheless, sanitation practices stay an issue. Some homeowners continue to utilize the stream, while indiscriminate refuse disposal around the watercourse threatens to weaken the advantages of the dredging.

These difficulties highlight the significance of continual neighborhood engagement, public awareness and efficient enforcement of ecological policies. Facilities can supply options to damaging practices, however its long-lasting effect likewise depends upon whether citizens utilize the centers supplied and whether the authorities accountable for sanitation and waste management can impose existing guidelines.

The issues in Temidire kind part of a more comprehensive ecological management difficulty that the Oyo State Government has actually continued to attend to through sanitation projects, waste evacuation and interventions targeting flooding and badly handled waterways.

In 2025, the state federal government restated its position versus indiscriminate garbage disposal and open defecation and inaugurated a State Task Group on Sanitation to collaborate efforts towards ending open defecation and enhancing water, sanitation and health practices.

In 2026, the federal government likewise magnified the evacuation of refuse from roadways, drains and water channels and revealed steps, consisting of requirements for property and business structures to supply waste bins, as part of efforts to enhance waste management. Other interventions have actually resolved flooding, disintegration and waterway management, consisting of jobs under the NEWMAP-EIB program.

These procedures show the federal government’s continuing efforts to resolve ecological obstacles throughout the state. Sustaining the gains needs reliable application at every level of federal government, sufficient financing, adequate workers and constant tracking.

Issues about understaffing and insufficient resources amongst frontline enforcement workers, especially at the city government level, likewise indicate the useful troubles that can develop in between revealing ecological policies and guaranteeing compliance within neighborhoods.

The experience in Temidire shows why cooperation in between federal government authorities, neighborhood organisations and locals stays essential. The Ibadan North-East Local Government supplied the excavator for the preliminary dredging, while the structure sponsored the intervention. The council consequently extended the clearance at its own expenditure.

The collaboration shows how community-based efforts can match public-sector efforts to deal with ecological issues. It likewise highlights the requirement to sustain such interventions beyond the preliminary execution of tasks.

For the Karim Adeyemi Foundation, continued engagement in Temidire offers a chance to examine the condition of its jobs and recognize exceptional requirements. The watercourse needs security from refuse disposing, the general public sanitation center requires constant usage and upkeep, and the biogas system stays to be totally operationalised.

These concerns will identify just how much of the preliminary intervention’s advantages can be sustained gradually. The dug up channel, for example, might slowly lose its capability if refuse and other particles collect once again. The accessibility of a public toilet does not instantly remove open defecation without continued public education and modifications in behaviour.

For locals, the experience of the 2026 rainy season up until now supplies a basis for comparing conditions before and after the dredging. The level of flooding formerly related to heavy rains has actually not been reported throughout the follow-up, while the sanitation center uses an alternative to practices that add to ecological contamination.

The interventions have actually likewise established gradually instead of being restricted to a single task. The amazed borehole was commissioned in 2024, followed by the building of the sanitation center and the digging up intervention in 2025. Together, the tasks resolve 3 interconnected neighborhood requirements: access to water, sanitation and the management of a watercourse susceptible to flooding and contamination.

One year after the dredging, Temidire’s experience indicate the worth of integrating facilities advancement with neighborhood involvement and continual federal government action. The documented decrease in flooding offers a motivating sign of the intervention’s effect, while the exceptional sanitation and waste-management difficulties reveal that the work is not yet total.

Keeping the development will need ongoing cooperation in between the structure, the city government, pertinent state firms and neighborhood members. Reliable enforcement, sufficient resources and accountable ecological practices will be important to safeguarding the watercourse and guaranteeing that the sanitation center serves its desired function.

At Temidire Bridge, the dredging has actually offered homeowners with a factor to reassess their experience of the rainy season. Whether the reported enhancement can be sustained in subsequent years will depend not just on the work finished in 2025, however likewise on the upkeep of the channel, the efficient management of waste and the continued dedication of all those accountable for the neighborhood’s environment.