By
30/06/2012
Call it a day of rage
and bedlam and you may not be wrong. It was a day the heavens’ violent and
relentless yawning left residents of Lagos and Ogun States at the mercy of
nature’s cruel hands.
All across the two
states, the story bear a familiar refrain. Flood, flood and flood everywhere.
While the rains came as a welcome relief from the baking heat that endured
between January to April this year, its present offering has come, rather as a
pill too lethal to swallow.
With residents
displaced from their homes and roads taken over by flood waters, this is one
gift nature has unleashed with a tinge of vengeance. And since Thursday, from
Lagos to Ogun State, virtually everyone has been counting his loses and
lamenting his anguish, just as every home has equally been counting its
misery.
Leaving sorrows, tears
and despair on its trail, residents of the two states recounted their
experiences to The Nation on Saturday:
Boloaji –Ikorodu: The
rain which started at 7pm, continued relentlessly till 8am. We woke up only to
find that the entire area had been completely over run by flood waters. Both
human and vehicular movements were seriously hampered. The development led to
many people staying indoors. While those who ventured out, did so with the help
of an improvised canoe, others watched in abject helplessness. An area that was
never used to canoe, suddenly witnessed the presence of such means of
transportation. Apart from canoes, motorcycles were also used in ferrying
people.
In what seemed like
different strokes for different folks, Bolaji told The Nation that while it was
lamentation for so many of the residents, it was triumph for commercial
motorcycle riders, popularly called okada and canoe operators who had to quickly
cash in on the torment of the residents by mother nature. Bolaji said that the
okada and canoe operators made a kill of the bad situation, as they charged
between N50 and N100 to get people across the floods ravaged area.
According to Bolaji,
the nearness of the affected area to a canal also contributed to the flood
watersFor
Agbebi –Akute, Ogun State, it was hell let loose Thursday and Friday as
residents of Alagbole and Iyakoyo were literally held hostage by flood waters
occasioned by the torrential rain that lasted all day. For those who dared to
make it out, it was not easy for them as they had to be carried on the back of
others. But the service was not free.
According to him, it
was a dreadful sight to behold as trucks and canoes were freely used in ferrying
people to escape being drowned in the flood. “I was on my way to work and had to
make a U-turn when I could hardly discern the road from the gutters. Everywhere
was overtaken by flood waters.
“For those carrying
people on their backs, they charged as high as between N150 and N200, while
canoes charged between N250 and N300. But for some families, there appeared to
be no escape route following the invasion of their homes by the merciless flood
waters.
For motorists who
thought they could have their way with the rampaging flood, they were reduced to
‘submarines’. But so far, there was no reported casualty.
In the home of a
certain family, they had to evacuate their children to a family friends’ house
as their apartment was reduced to a swimming pool.”
Recounting her
experience, Yemisi- Akute, Ogun State, “said some part of Akute was like an
island, no thanks to a dam which content was coincidentally released at the same
time the floods came calling. Vehicular traffic was marred by the large body of
water that took the entire road by the jugular. As late as 2am, long queues of
vehicles could be seen snaking their way uncertainly to their various
destinations.
For residents of Lambe
in Ogun State, they were trapped in their homes and those who made it out were
not so lucky to find their way home as the major road going to their houses was
enveloped by flood waters.
Stanley –Ayobo, Lagos
State: In Ayobo area of Lagos, houses could be seen submerged. Residents had a
Herculean task entering their houses. It took some of the residents about five
days to bail out water. It was such a pitiable sight to behold. The topography
of the area further compounded the problem. I could not immediately confirm
this, but a friend said the bridge linking Lagos and Ogun States was impassable
because it was submerged.
Ndubuisi, Alimosho,
Lagos: At Aboru, both married and single women freely lent themselves to be
carried by men. The situation was so frightening that they were no longer
bothered how they were being carried. What they were interested in was to be
helped to a safer area from the flood strewn area.
At Apple Junction, Femi
Kila and several other streets around Ago Palace Way, in Isolo Local Government
Area of Lagos, many residents were sacked from their homes by the Thursday and
Friday’s downpour, which last for more than 18 hours.
According to Bayo
Adeoye, the rain left many residents of the area trapped for several
hours.
Adeoye said residents
who left home early in the morning were trapped because their homes were
overtaken by flood waters.
He said the flood
waters made most of the houses in the area inhabitable. “The rains left may
people along the Ago Palace Way homeless. It was tough for the people because
their homes were overtaken by water. You can imagine somebody who went to work
in the morning, but could not gain access to the house by the time he came
back.”
In the Ajeromi Ifelodun
Local Government Area of Lagos State, Idewu, Baale, Wilmer Streets and many
others in the area were left flooded by the rain. A resident, Ayodele Olalere,
said the rain left many businesses paralyzed.
According to Olalere,
residents resorted to the use of canoes and other floating materials to move
around. “The flood paralyzed many businesses in the area. People started using
canoes to move round the neighourhood.”
For residents of Isheri
Oshun, Burknor Estate, suburbs of Lagos, it was double calamity. While the flood
waters made their homes inhabitable, different kinds of reptiles ensured that
they never went anywhere near their abandoned homes as they swiftly took over
the waters.
Femi Salawu, a
resident, said he moved out of the area after discovering that the waters were
infested by snakes. Salawu vowed not to go back home until the waters receded.
“I am not going back to that place until the water dries up. You cannot imagine
what we are going through. Big snakes found their ways into homes of people,
leaving us with no choice than to run for our dear lives,” Salawu
explained.
Meanwhile, road users
on the Apapa -Oshodi express way are still subjected to untold hardship from the
havoc the Thursday downpour wreaked across the metropolis.
The problem is more
compounded due to the prevalent bad road and blocked drainages that have left
the route from Oshodi Apapa still flooded.
The deep gully at the
Mile Two FESTAC end of the road almost renders the road impassible. Motorists
who ply the route yesterday where held up in traffic for hours, while many
commuters resorted to trekking to their offices.
At Sanya and Second
Rainbow Bus stop, it was a vast stretch of water covering the road.
“The situation is
really disheartening, we have been on this road for over an hour now, we just
have to come down and trek to Mile 2 so as to join another bus to Apapa, said a
commuter who gave her name as Julian.
Julian wondered why
Julius Berger reconstructed only one lane and left the other unattended to.
“Since last year, the drainage from Second Rainbow Bus stop has been blocked and
this makes it impossible for the flood to recede whenever it rains.
“We were excited when
we saw Julius Berger working on the road from the Apapa- Oshodi route, hoping
that before the peak of the raining season, there would have been some
rehabilitation work on the other lane, but sadly, nothing of such happened and
many residents that ply this route can tell you that the road has been blocked
since Thursday.”
Another commuter, Jude
Okezie, said the situation is so unfortunate considering that Federal Government
visited the road severally last year and yet failed to address the challenge
before the peak of this year’s rainy season.
“This situation was
very obvious last year because the entire stretch from Apapa to Oshodi has
completely failed on both lanes. The Minister of Works and other top government
functionaries visited this road last year and they saw the challenge. Relief
came when we saw Berger working on the other lane, but even work on that lane
has stopped also.
Okezie said Julius
Berger, knowing the challenge on the road would have helped open the drainage
channel while still working on the other lane. “They are professionals and
should know better where the challenges are on the road and could have put up
palliative repairs while still working on the other lane. That way, the impact
would not have been this severe.” he added.
For residents of
Gloryland community in Isheri Olofin, Egbe Idimu Local Council Development Area
(LCDA), they have appealed to Lagos State Government to urgently come to their
aid and rescue them from the problem of flooding in the area which started about
seven years ago.
The situation, a
spokesman for the community, Mr. Isaac Okorie said, got worse with the
construction of the LASU/Iba road, because the construction company, Chinese
Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC) diverted erosion to the
community.
According to Okorie, a
series of letters have been written to the appropriate authorities with no
response. The Thursday’s downpour, he said has rendered most of the residents in
the community homeless.
“As early as 2am
yesterday (Thursday), when the rains started, residents were trapped in their
houses and have been calling on neighbors for rescue; right now, more than eight
houses are submerged in the flood. We are appealing to the state government to
come to our aid,” Okorie said.
The streets affected
according to him are; Bishop Ogbonna, Prince Wale, Prince Hakeem Balogun, among
others.
He also decried the
non-existence of drainages in the area, despite promises by the LCDA
chairman.
Lagos to dedicate today
sanitation on drainage clearing
Meanwhile, Lagos State
Government has that it will dedicates today’s sanitation exercise to the
evacuation of drainage channels as measures to curtail the effect of torrential
rainfall that would be witnessed in the next two weeks in the state.
State Commissioner for
the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, said this was necessary considering that the
coming weeks will be the most critical peak of the raining season.
He urged residents to
come out for the exercise which has been specifically dedicated to the cleaning
of drains in the state environment.
He admonished Lagosians
to join hands with the state government to ensure a flood free Lagos, saying his
Ministry has also intensified its mid-rain cleaning programme.
Bello said the Ministry
of the Environment has just completed the pre-rain cleaning exercise aimed at
ensuring that all forms of impediments on drainage channels were removed to
allow for effective discharge of storm water into the lagoon.
He urged residents not
to panic as all the major drainage channels had been cleaned and dredged in
anticipation of this year’s rains, adding that as the rains get more intense
during the year, Lagosians should relate effectively with their respective
Resident Engineers and Drainage Maintenance Officers whose phone numbers have
been published and presently been posted to all the 57 Local Government and
Council Development Areas in the state, to tackle flood related
matters.
He warned residents
who still patronize cart pushers to desist from this illegal act as the refuse
collected in each neighborhood, were been dumped into canals close to them at
night by the cart pushers.
He also urged Lagosians
to patronize PSP Operators who will ensure that collected wastes in each local
government were properly disposed of.
The Commissioner also
warned Inter-State Bus Operators, state transport owners and road transport
workers association/unions, commercial bus operators and okada riders to comply
with the restriction of human and vehicular movement order which is between
7.00am and 10.00am.
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