For the second day running, Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), on Tuesday, undertook a tour of flood affected areas in parts of the state as a result of last Sunday’s heavy rain, saying government would identify and remove all obstructions to drainage channels in the state.
Governor Fashola, who inspected drainage systems in Gbagada, Somolu, Iganmu and parts of Surulere, said his administration would no longer tolerate the construction of structures or any other form of human intervention on established drainage and flood channels in the state adding that enforcement would be stepped up immediately.
Speaking particularly on the siting of building on Soluyi drainage channel in Gbagada, Governor Fashola noted, “the channels are there and they are working. But these flood mishaps are largely due to human intervention and obstruction of the channels either by building on them or by blocking them with refuse or other items of such nature.
“We were just told by the Permanent Secretary (Drainage) that we are standing on a drainage channel, a channel that flows into Odo Iya Alaro River; that drains Gbagada and Soluyi. Now, this sand-filled place was not here two months ago when the permanent secretary and his team were here. Now they have sand-filled the water path; you and I are standing on it because people want to build houses,” the Governor said.
Pointing out other structures such as fence and a building which were not there when the permanent secretary and his team visited the place two months ago, Governor Fashola declared, “now, this we will not tolerate. We are coming back here and the people of Soluyi must take note that we will be back here to re-establish this canal.
“When nature takes its course as a result of human action, people’s lives are disturbed and it leads to anguish, but we are the cause. This is the time we must stop people from playing games and putting other people’s lives at risk.”
Governor Fashola assured that contractors were working on the different drainage systems across the state to re-establish the canal lines so that there would be free flow of water during the rains adding that there was need for more dredging of the waterways which, according to him, had become heavily silted, in order to make them deeper and increase their capacity to hold water in bigger tranches and give more efficiency to the system.
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