By Kingsley Adeboye
Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, has called on Lagos residents to verify the drainage level of their areas and obtain invert level of the major roads before constructing their buildings to ensure that houses are not submerged during rains. He also warned that those whose buildings are below the drainage level will experience perennial flooding.

The Commissioner who gave the warning during an inspection tour of some ongoing drainage projects in the state   warned earlier that “the magnitude of Lagos seasonal rainfall prediction for this year is that Lagos will experience heavy rainfall with serious intensity just like last year. Lagos is expected to record 1279mm with marginal error of 50mm”.

The drainage projects inspected include Elere Drain in Agege running through Odejobi (350.00m long), Agunbiade/Alfa Nla (1650.00m long)  which will deflood Iju Road, Elere Street, Alfa Nla Road, Agunbiade Road, Odejobi Street, Old Abeokuta Express way.

Others in the area are Awori-Moricas Drain (2000.00m long), Adealu Drain (650.00m) and Papa Ashafa (1000.00m) which will deflood Moricas, Awori, Adenle, Alfa Nla, Ipaja Streets, Roche, Ifelodun Streets, Adealu and Papa Ashafa streets and environs.

The inspection tour also included visit to collector drains at Oduduwa Street, Ikeja GRA; Fanikayode/Sobo Arobiodu drain; Oduduwa Outfall to deflood Oduduwa, Sobo Arobiodu, Fanikayode streets, Oduduwa Cresent and its environs.

Bello noted that the drainage construction around Ikeja GRA was to harmonize all collector drains around the area to effectively combat flood, explaining that the present administration is a people-oriented regime that does not discriminate on project allocations.

He further explained that just as many projects that were executed in high brow areas like Ikoyi , Ikeja GRA, Apapa and many others, so many others were awarded and executed at Agege, Elere,  Juba Alaro, Arigbanla and other places, stressing that all ongoing drainage projects in Lagos were designed to take care of all classes of Lagosians as everyone deserved equal attention of the government.

He urged Lagosians to exercise patience as there are quite a large number of drainage construction works ongoing in many parts of the state which might bring about temporary discomfort, adding that there can be no gains without some pains being experienced.

He assured Lagosians that the state government was intensifying efforts to curb the menace of flood around the metropolis and that to achieve success, the people must endure.

According to him, the Environment Ministry had been proactive enough to have come up with a forward-looking strategy and work plan which had divided its de-flooding programme into a trimester of pre-rain, mid-rain and post-rain plan.