Residents of Aguda area of Ketu street, Brown road, Mountain of Fire Ministries Regional Headquarters in Surulere area of Lagos and others have cried out to the Lagos state government and the state ministry of Environment to come to their rescue over the blockage of the canal in the area by a developer which is seriously wrecking havoc when rain falls.
Conducting Journalists round the area, the residents said if nothing is urgently done to check the activities of the developer who is bent on building close to the canal and thereby obstructing free flow of flood, an out break of disease may be imminent in the area when it rains heavily again.
Speaking on behalf of the residents of the area, Frank Meke lamented the hardship the residents go through whenever there is heavy rain.
Narrating the ordeal of the residents: “Meke explained that the state government provides storm way that dredges water out of this place that ensures that there is free flow of storm water when it rains, over time a developer who claimed that they own the land started sand filling and everybody thought it can’t be possible, but the first impact after it rained recently in Aguda was that the whole community is submerged. Every house was affected, community business was disrupted, rodents, serpents and all sorts of things had access into people’s home and we are trying to ask questions why is all these happening, does this person has approval from the Lagos state to do this or was it done out of impunity because we live in a country where people decide to do what they want to do and feel nobody can hold them to ransom. “But unfortunately that is what is happening because for weeks now after normal protest and all those things, nobody is talking to us, you can see that the walls there are collapsing, you can see it your selves, this is not induced or generated, the canal itself has been limited, shut down and there is no free flow of water, everywhere is smelling now, and we are saying that before there is an outbreak of diseases like cholera in this place, that the state government should please reassure the people that they don’t have a hand in this and call this person(developer) to order or find her another place if maybe she was wrongly given this property”.
While calling on government to act fast before there is a major outbreak of disease as a result of the blockage of the water channel by the developer, Meke pointed out that: “We are talking about a community that has no recreational ground, look at the secondary school the state government invested in, is gone (Aguda Grammar School), the PHCN power line is there, if it rains at a point, it can fall because the sand under it can give way and by the time you know it, it may fall and a lot people will die in the process, so these are some of the things we are calling for attention now before people begins to die or experience any casualty, there should be attempt to check this madness”.
He stated that the development is a recent occurrence, stressing that this has not happened before.
According to him, we noticed this of recent, we know there is a canal here and a virgin area that is close to the canal that was not developed, maybe somebody got smart and believed he could do something out of this place by querying why should this place lie fallow.
Meke said: “But the truth of the matter is that whatever you sow, you reap. So having sowed the sand filling, the community is reaping destruction. This is a recent thing, it has never been part of the community.
Responding to the issue of who sold the land to the developer. Meke explained that it Is not the duty of the community or those living there to go and find out who is behind it.
“You as a resident, you either own a house or you are a tenant, so is not our duty to find out who is involved, we are asking the state that has authority to give permission and to give approval, to come look at it and if is not in the master plan of the state in terms of building supervision, even at that, you have to give some space as there is no space here. This is the canal, you don’t build close to it. As it is, is a water mashed area and the water eats closer and that is what happened to that wall, you need to have some space. Some space must have been given by the original master plan that okay nobody build around here to give room for flood path because the carrying capacity may be overshot depending on the intensity of the rain that come in at a time. So you give room for that so that it can overflow a little and give room, but here somebody is busy sand filling”.
“This canal from Ijesha expressway come through here and then washes out in Censor in Aguda here, it takes you to Bode Thomas and those axis. So once it rains from Ijesha because the water must find its level and once this is shut down and we allow it, even people here wouldn’t have access, it affects a lot of communities here, we don’t even know the extent of the damage because what we are seeing is the ones we can see here and not the beginning of the carnal.
On the estimated cost of the damages caused by the last flood , Meke said: “It was really terrible here, but we cannot on Naira and Kobo quantify the damages because some houses were destroyed, people have parked away because they have seen that this person want to have his or her way and they can’t challenge it, so they have to save their family and take their children away, some don’t even come around when it rains, they have relocated, they went on forced holiday, the students could not go to school, the rural market around here could not open and people cannot move around once it rains, so those are huge impacts which you can quantify in terms of Naira and Kobo”.
So once it rains, the community is shut down. We want the government to come and investigate, to first ascertain who did this, then call the person to order and open the channels very well so that people can live like human beings. We are talking about making Lagos a smart city, we are talking about Lagos of the 21st century, we can’t be talking about that with all these things happening. Development is not just limited to what you are seeing. Even Lekki as we talk today is endangered, you can see the whole area is densely populated and when you have that kind of impact on a densely populated area like this and if there is an outbreak of Cholera or any kind of disease, can the state government cope?.
you see what is happening in Benue and all those states, is people that caused it. This is not the type you see in Puerto Rico or Florida, this is one generated by human beings”.
