Tessy Igomu
“I am now an internally displaced person in Lagos. Look at my house, everything I worked for has been destroyed by flood overnight,” Kehinde Aderanti, a landlord in Ikorodu, lamented, shaking his head and letting out a deep sigh.
Yet, even in the face of the surging flood, he fought hard to gather what he could from his belongings floating about in the swirling water.
With a baby strapped to her back, Module Adedayo, a resident of Shogunle, Oshodi, cried over the loss of her vital documents as well as other valuables swept away by rampaging flood that swept through the area over the weekend. The distraught housewife said perennially, she ends up being beaten and battered by unfathomable losses she consistently incurs from flooding incidents in the area.
Aderanti and Adedayo are not alone in this sad dilemma. Several Lagos residents have suddenly become destitute after being rendered homeless by rampaging floods.
Presently, Lagos, a coastal city that sits on the brink of the Atlantic has become inundated by flood. Daily, the water keeps stretching farther than the eyes could go, flowing ferociously with a current that devastates everything in its path.
In the past four weeks, the dark clouds have continued to gather, unleashing undisguised fury in the form of rain on residents. This, alongside the rise in sea level, based on reports, has caused the river banks to balloon and overflow their embankments, with the devastation assuming alarming proportions.
Based on reports, the tides are high, making it difficult for the Lagos Lagoon to discharge water. Consequently, this has caused water to flow back into drainage outlets, flooding areas like Victoria Island, Dolphin, Ikoyi, Oworoshoki and other parts of the state.
Also, the gradual release of water from the Oyan Dam in Ogun State has made the situation to spiral out of control with communities around Ketu, Mile 12, Ikorodu, Isheri, Magodo, Owode Onirin as well as Akute, Warewa and OPIC in Ogun State overwhelmed by flood.
Speaking on the development, Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tunji Bello, said the flood might not recede anytime soon because of the rise of seawater level.
Bello disclosed that as a measure to help reduce the damage, the Lagos and Ogun governments have gone into talks to control water released from the Oyan Dam. He said the state government was in talks with the officials of the Ogun-Osun River Basin Authority on the issue.
The Managing Director, Ogun/Osun River Basin Development Authority, Mr Oluwafemi Odumosu, while shedding light on the flooding incident said that the water released from the dam was less than 10 per cent.
He explained that the flooding does not necessarily have to be caused by opening of the dam, adding that there are other causes of flooding like rainfall and climate change that could be responsible. He further said the water that goes into the dam is calculated and prevented from overflowing, hence the need for periodic opening.
“We do normal scientific water releases; we don’t just release the water without generated data.
It will be in our interest and that of everyone to open the dam from time to time; if we don’t do that, and the dam has so much water and overflows, there will be catastrophe. It will sweep away properties.
“In the downstream also, sometimes there will be too much rains in some areas but no rain around the dam; so, we don’t have to release water. In that case, it is water from the rain that causes the flooding,” he said.
The devastation is being witnessed across the country as several communities, homes, farmlands and viable sources of income have been destroyed.
Before now, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), in its last alert, warned Nigerians about imminent flooding from September. The agency’s director-general, Clement Nze, had at the time, urged state governors and residents to heed the warning to avert catastrophic consequences.
Among other things, it disclosed that 74 local government areas in 30 states would be severely flooded, while 279 local government areas would experience minimum flooding.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) also warned that Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, among other states would experience flooding, following expected high volume of rainfall.
The spokesman for NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, said there was no way Lagos would not be flooded going by the high volume of refuse and other wastes in the drainage.
“We are suffering from manmade disasters. The practice here is to empty refuse in the drainage,” lamented a resident of Ikorodu.
An environmentalist, Oyinye Opara said relevant government agencies have over the years simply adopted reactive approach to disasters, instead of actually putting the much promised measures in place to curb them. This view was shared by some Lagos residents.
Angered by the massive flooding, most Lagos residents said they have always been apprehensive about the days ahead as no proactive step was taken by the state government to brace for the rainy season. They lamented that in the past, efforts were taken by some past administrations to ensure that an agency known as ‘Drain Ducks’, under the Ministry of the Environment, evacuated wastes from drainages and ensured that waterways and canals were dredged to ensure free flow of rainwater.
A resident of Oworonshoki, Adegboyega Raji, said in the past weeks, those in the area had been sleeping with one eye open each time it started raining in the night.
“We in this area live in fear and that fear has been confirmed. We had expected the state government to clear the canals that run through this area so that water can flow into the lagoon. We have experienced big losses, even though we thank God that no life has been lost so far,” he said.
Many Lagos residents fear that, unless something is done fast to ensure unhindered flow of water, the coming days might record more catastrophic consequences.