– By Joseph Edun and Olaoluwa Olorunfemi
ABH, IBADAN- The left end of G block, Alexander Brown hall has been enveloped by a strongly repugnant and malodorous odour from a destroyed “soakaway pit“. The unfortunate incident occurred two weeks ago when a drilling vehicle was manoeuvring its way to reach the front of the “boys quarter” beside G block to drill a borehole.
This was first observed during the borehole-drilling activities carried out behind the eastern part of G- Block between June 2 and June 9, 2018 as some of the equipment driven in damaged the sewage disposal system, thus causing a leak in the pipes draining water from the bathrooms to the soakaways behind the block. The heavy duty vehicle destroyed a part of the walkway at the back of G block and the lid of the suck away. Since then, the content of the soakaway has been leaking, meandering its way through the walkway.
The destruction has resulted into a terribly foul and offensive odour that has been plaguing G block for the past two weeks. The putrid smell increased the more after a heavy downpour making it almost impossible to stand at the balcony of the other end of G block. A Brownite who stays on G block who lamented about the situation said, “…the smell is just too bad, it’s almost unbearable staying inside the room when the odour begins”.
It however seems nothing has been done over the past four weeks as the leak has only spread and now traverses the length of the walkway behind G-block while constituting an aesthetic nuisance and a reservoir of micro-organisms, perhaps one of the many contributing factor to the recent plague of houseflies in the cafeteria.
Comments were sought from the Information Minister as to a possible solution for this but a referral to the Health and Sanitation Minister was advised who was not available as at the time of press release. It is quite sad that the Health and Sanitation ministry has not looked into this matter that has lingered on for weeks now.
We only hope that quick action would be taken as regards this in order to restore our Hall to provide a habitable environment for Nigeria’s future health professionals to thrive.
