8 million Lagos residents prone to flood disaster

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Tuesday warned that no fewer than eight million residents of Lagos State were prone to flood disaster.

The Acting Coordinator, Lagos Territorial Office of NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, made this known at the flag-off of the “Door to Door 2020 Flood Awareness and Sensitisation Campaign on Prevention, Management and Mitigation of Flood” in Mushin.

The awareness campaigns in high risk flood prone areas in Lagos, which kicked off from Mushin was accompanied with a walk show.

Mr Farinloye said the agency was in partnership with the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Red Cross, and public health practitioners.

He said this is to ensure that critical people, especially women and children are well equipped with adequate information in case of flood.

“There have been predictions of flooding in certain areas of Lagos State.

“So, the federal government wants us to go and sensitise people because we do not want to record any unfortunate incident, especially loss of lives and property.

“We want to empower people with information against losses. So far so good, we have assessed close to eight million people to be vulnerable to flood disaster in Lagos State.

“Four local government areas have been identified as highly probable flood prone areas, and about 13 are said to be probable,” Mr Farinloye said.

He said the highly probable areas to be affected by flood were Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos Mainland, Ikorodu and Mushin.

The acting coordinator said that six of the probable areas had already experienced devastating flooding in 2020 already.

He said the unbanned release of excess water would affect from 30 to 33 areas of Lagos State mainly in Ikorodu and Kosofe areas.

He said the agency has carried out vulnerability assessment with certain agencies at the state level.

He said that the agency decided to kick off the campaign from Mushin because wastes from Oshodi axis, Surulere, and other parts come to the canal in Mushin and, thereafter, move to Ijora Badia and Apapa.

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Mr Farinloye noted that the canal in Mushin had been overwhelmed, which he said could increase the flood risk.

“People should know we have this danger at hand and they should know what to do when these things happen.

“Before heavy rain begins, there is the need to clear our drainage channels and that is why we are here to see the situation first hand.

“If at this time we have this challenge of water not being able to flow, definitely when rains come, the situation will escalate,” he said.

Mr Farinloye said that NEMA had been working with the relevant state agencies, local governments, community development associations, non-governmental organisations and other groups to mitigate the effect of flooding, especially in clearing canals.

He said that from Mushin, the team would move to Ijora and Ikorodu for the same awareness and sensitisation campaigns to prevent flood disaster.

The team moved round some streets and markets in Mushin area to sensitise people about the flood risk.

(NAN)