Friday 29 June 2012

LAGOS AND HER INCESSANT FLOODING

         July 10th 2011 was a day Lagosians will never forgot in a hurry! The flooding killed many people as well as rendering thousands homeless. As the commercial capital of Nigeria,. Lagos inhabits fifteen million people who contribute to the growth of the country's GDP. There is a popular line from late Fela Anikulapo Kuti music that says 'lojo Monday, Eko oni gbagbakugba o', that means 'on Monday morning, Lagos won't take nonsense'. This is an understatement because Lagos doesn't take nonsense everyday [Sundays inclusive].  Lagosians go out everyday to eke a living as artisans, bankers, businessmen, make-shift portals, street sweepers, toilet cleaners and even baby sitters because it's only a lazy man that can't have a home in the city of Lagos!
       But the resilient attitude of Lagosians to fight poverty and hunger is always being marred and threatened yearly by incessant flooding that always follow heavy rains. Cities like Ajegunle, Mushin, Ikeja, Lagos Island and Mainland that have largest concentration of Lagosians are always flooded. A visit to any of these cities from May to August every year would be boring and tiring to a first time visitor to Lagos. Water covers homes, offices, roads, schools shops and even kitchens and massively destroy life and property around these places.
      There have been attempts by the state government to prevent or reduce flooding especially by routine maintenance of existing drainage channels and construction of new ones and also by using other methods to curb the destruction. The bitter fact is that the measures have not been helping in stopping this menace. The government recently embark on the construction of Alaba-Ijora road at the time when even an illiterate knows that it would soon be rained. The contractors delayed the tarring of the road after many houses and shops have been demolished because they were 'illegal' structures. The inhabitants of the road are now in the mystery as the road is now worse than it was before the start of the construction.  
   The commissioner for the Environment, Tunji Bello onced promised that drainage maintanance policy would lead to the de-silting of the major channels in all the local government and cuoncil development areas in Lagos but the silting is becoming too much that students, aged and women fall into clays, muds and gutters everyday. People have to cross 'rivers' to leave their homes for work everyday.

     Lagosians are given emergency numbers 767 and 112 and only machines answer us for not less than thirty minutes! The Emergency Management Authority is full of staff that got  their offices, not by merit but  through political favouritism. It think it's high time Lagosians started thinking of being safety conscious by not blocking the drain and canals with filth and waste. Lagos land owners are not even helping matter with their desperation to collect house rent by building houses on canals and drains. After all, it's all about money!

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