Persistent rainfall: Lagos tells residents to vacate flood-prone areas

-Flood in Lagos

 This is really happening in some parts of Lagos...

Following persistent rainfall, Lagos State Government, yesterday advised residents living in flood plains to vacate in the meantime to avoid loss of lives and property.

The state government also assured residents in Oko-Oba, Agege in Orile Agege Local Council Develoment Area, LCDA,  and environs that the government would expand the drainage channels and canals  to contain the massive rains and flood expected within the next two weeks.

The state Commissioner for the Environment,Tunji Bello, spoke after an inspection tour of drainage channels in Orile Agege area during the monthly sanitation exercise as well as assess  the impact of last Thursday’s downpour that left several parts of the state flooded with residents forced to vacate their houses.

Residents in the area who trooped out to welcome the commissioner and his entourage narrated their experiences on the massive rainfall and  lamented that the Oko-Oba drainage channel had become incapable of containing the  flood occasioned by the rain.

Bello explained that the Oko-Oba canal was developed in 1989 to suit the capacity of residents at the time, saying that population increase and the impact of climate change were among the factors that created the challenges of flooding witnessed in the area on Thursday.

“The kind of rain we were having 20 years ago is not the same now and don’t forget that when the channel was created, they took cognisance of the population of that area. Over the years now, the population has increased; we now need to expand the channel to cater for the population. Secondly, the volume of water coming is so much that because the drainage was done a long time ago, it was designed to take a certain amount of water, and now because the water is so much, automatically, it has affected the channel”, the commissioner pointed out.

He continued; “So we have attained the peak period now and i don’t want to say the kind of rain we had, last year, will not be compared to this year. But,  for us, the emphasis is for us to be prepared. We have told those  living in the low line areas that this is the time to vacate temporarily.”

He stressed that what is happening in Lagos is not peculiar to Nigeria  as similar cases were witnessed in United Kingdom and America adding, “People have learnt to see natural disasters as a regular thing, so we must now begin to see heavy rain as part of our own lives”.

source: Daily Vanguard