BY NNAMDI OJIEGO

LAGOS – The Lagos State Government, yesterday, said it could not stop flooding or any other natural disaster in the state, but can only mitigate its effects.

Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, stated this while delivering a lecture, entitled, “You and Your Environment” at the 15th annual lecture of Lagoon Hospital Friends, at Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos.

Bello explained that flooding was one of the natural disasters which no man could stop or prevent from occurring.

He said: “We can’t stop flooding. Nobody can stop it. Even the developed countries like America, Austrialia and others with all their technologies couldn’t stop flooding.”

The commissioner said what the government was doing was to put some measures in place to reduce the negative impacts of any natural disaster on the residents.

He listed some of the measures taken by government to include clearing canals and drainages, construction of new drains, collection and management of wastes, planting of trees, evacuaetion and relocation of people from coastal/wet areas and school advocacy, among others.

Bello, however, warned Lagosians to desist from indiscriminate dumping of refuse, particularly, on waterways as various reports have predicted severe flooding next year.

He encouraged them to manage and dispose their wastes properly.