Lagos Adopts Effective Drainage Management System

By Ahmed Rahma

The Lagos State government, through the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, has taken steps to address the perennial flooding in the state.

The Director of Public Affairs of the Ministry, Mr Kunle Adeshina, said in a statement that the government has already commenced the construction and concrete lining of the nine-kilometre Akinola/Aboru drainage channel.

Mr Adeshina stated that the construction, which would be completed within 24 months, would permanently solve the Aboru flooding problem, which he said dated back to 1989.

In addition to the work on the Akinola Aboru channel, the ministry has commenced work in other areas.

“Prominent among these are 13 secondary channels: Abraham Adesanya Collector Drain/Dredging of System 63, Lekki Expressway to de-flood Abraham Adesanya Estate, Lekki Expressway, Ogombo and its adjoining areas.

“The Freedom Way Channel, Lekki that takes away flood from the Lekki-Epe Expressway, part of Itedo and part of Admiralty way straight into the Lagos Lagoon,” he said.

He further stated that the same applied to the Orchid Road Collector drains off Lekki-Epe Expressway in Eti-Osa, to de-flood Orchid Road and the numerous estates within the neighbourhood in Lekki.

According to him, the project would eliminate the overflow of the area with stormwater after heavy rainfalls.

“Dredging and construction is also ongoing on the Fish Farm Collector Drain, Ikorodu to provide relief to fish farmers who are facing flooding issues due to the on-going construction on Ikorodu-Shagamu Road.

“There is construction at the Edun Alaran Collector Drain, to alleviate the flooding problem being encountered at Beckley Estate and its environs in Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area,” he said.

The ministry said other areas include the Osapa Lagoon Channel, to de-flood Ologolo Lekki Expressway at Jakande and the Kusenla regional roads, the drains from Odugunwa Street through Buraimoh Alli Fetuga, Ogunmekan Onabola, Charly Boy, amongst others.

He assured that painstaking efforts were being made to ensure that flash floods disappeared after a maximum of five hours, following such downpours.

Mr Adeshina noted that the ministry has positioned the Emergency Flood Abatement Gang (EFAG) to clean up existing channels to free them of refuse and silts.

He stated that from its reactivation in October 2019 till date, EFAG has successfully maintained, cleaned and de-flooded a total of 307 km of drains across several local governments of the state.