By Kunle Adeshina
The roll call of guests made up of paramount chiefs, opinion leaders, community development committees and community development association members, residents made up of many elder statesmen and women, market leaders and Local Government chairmen and representatives from three Local Council Development Areas contiguous to the Akinola Aboru Drainage channels in Agbado Oke Odo/Mosan Okunola/Ayobo Ipaja LCDA that graced the stakeholders meeting at Abule Egba, a suburb of Alimosho Local Government convened by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources all spoke in unmistakable terms about the seriousness which the people attach to the decision of the state government to find a lasting solution to a challenge that was almost becoming intractable.
The strict adherence to Covid-19 safety protocols by organizers ensured that several people who intended to gain entrance into the hall were prevented and the expectancy feeling was visibly written over majority of the attendees with the presence of the top echelon of the Ministry led by the Commissioner, Mr Tunji Bello, Special Adviser, Drainages and Water Resources, Joe Igbokwe, Permanent Secretary, Lekan Shodeinde and senior functionaries of the state Government.
To those who are very conversant with the Lagos topology, Alimosho is the most densely populated Local Government in the state and has been broken down into many Local Council Development Areas for administrative convenience and bringing development closer to the people. Aboru is a very large community under the Mosan Okunola LCDA which has however been hitting the headlines for many decades due to the wrong reason – flooding and attendant loss of lives, properties and dislocation of many homes. Each time it rains, Aboru is always at the receiving end because the channel in the does not have the capacity to handle the magnitude of storm water that flows into the community whenever there is torrential rainfall. Many property owners have abandoned them while several tenants have relocated to other areas. Properties worth millions have been lost to flooding which usually inundate the communities whenever rain falls.
Upon the assumption of office by Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu and in view of a deluge of appeals received by the state government on the poor state of the Aboru Canal, which was earlier awarded during the Fashola administration but not completed, an approval was granted for the construction and concrete lining of the nine kilometres stretch Akinola Aboru Channel with a completion period of 24 months. The stakeholders meet aimed to give residents a formal notice that the contractor has been mobilized to site, seek the cooperation of residents and also take their contributions, suggestions on what they think the state government should do going forward on the project. The preponderance of opinions of all those who spoke at the meeting was a passionate appeal to the state government to ensure the completion of the project with a pledge to cooperate with the contractor towards delivering a qualitative job.
The Akinola River Aboru canal is made up of two alignments. The Aboru part is taking off from the Lagos Abeokuta Express Road after Iyana Ipaja cutting across Ige Road in Aboru Community and Command Road in Agbado Oke- Odo LCDA on the right. Taking its flow from as far as Ogun State from Oke Aro, Ifako Ijaiye, Agege and Alimosho, it is a 40-metre wide channel with service routes to maintain the channel. It will flow all the way into Ipaja Command Bridge. It will be concrete lined all the way and the final width will be about 60 metres at the downstream. Along the way, this channel will now receive inflow from the Akinola River and this will be lined as well. The Akinola River has 4km span with a section of 5m width and 2 metres depth and 12 metres bottom width and 20 metres top width. It spans from Ahmadiyyah axis and cut across Ekoro Road and the Akinola Road in Aboru area. The channel discharges into Aboru channel. It is instructive to point out that Aboru flooding problem dates back to 1989 and the present effort will permanently solve the problem.
As the year 2020 rolls by, it is not only the Akinola Aboru channel in Alimosho Local Government that have received attention towards bringing about a permanent solution to flooding, several other construction and dredging have been also been embarked upon. 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. The same applies to the Orchid Road Collector drains off Lekki-Epe Expressway in Eti-Osa to de-flood Orchid Road and all the numerous estates within that neighbourhood in Lekki. The project will eliminate the inundation of the area with storm water after heavy rainfalls. Dredging and construction is also on-going 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 and the Edun Alaran Collector Drain to alleviate the flooding problem being encountered at Beckley Estate and its environs in Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area.
Other areas where dredging and construction of drainage channels are on-going 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 that discharges into Gbagada Bariga Channel. This project which was awarded during the Fashola administration was abandoned due to paucity of funds but has been resuscitated by the present administration and is now at completion stage. At completion, it will de-flood Bariga, Gbagada Phase II and its environs.
Others are the Orchid road Collector drains off Lekki-Epe expressway in Eti-Osa to de-flood Orchid Road and all the numerous Estates within that neighbourhood.
Another major on-going project on the mainland is the Demurin Ogunsowobo Collector drain which after completion will de-flood Feyintolu, Ogunsowobo, Oyebanji, Igbonla, Baale Streets and its environs in Alapere-Ketu. The channel receives storm water from Ikorodu Road at Ketu and discharges into Lagos Lagoon via Ketu-Alapere Channel.
Lagos as a coastal city will always witness flash flooding whenever it rains, but painstaking efforts are being made to ensure that such floods disappears after maximum five hours after such downpours. Another set of 44 new collectors at various stages of construction are Da Costa/Adesina/Zanzi Collector Drain in Yaba, Ajiran Outfall Channel in Eti Osa, Joshua Ede Downstream Channels located at Abaranje in Ikotun, Alimosho, Kushoro Igbayilola Street, Collector Drain Phase II in Agege, Canal Road Collector Drain in Ajeromi-Ifelodun LG, Johnson, Bawa-Allah, Onisemo Channels in Shomolu, Adenuga/ DFRRI/ Jesugbogo collector drains within Aro Community in the ancient town of Badagry, Construction of Elemoro Collector Drain, Ibeju Lekki, Collector Drain to deflood Opebi Road, Ikeja, Abeokuta/Olanrewaju Collector Drain in Okokoymaiko, Iba LCDA, Ojo, Omolade Osinowo New Ewu Town Collector Drain, Construction of Senator Oluremi Tinubu New Era Foundation Collector Drain in Ibeju-Lekki.
Others are construction of drain to deflood Third Axial Road, Construction of Eletu-Edibo Junior High School Collector Drain, Abule-ijesha, Construction of Monilola Adepoju/ Odebiyi / Ameme Collector Drain, Construction of Onibuore Collector Drain, Surulere, Construction of Lawanson by Omobola/Durojaiye Collector, Mushin Local Government Area, Construction of Imulokanle Collector Drain, Phase II, Meiran, Agbado Oke-Odo LCDA amongst others.
Simultaneously, while new constructions and dredging is taking place across the state, efforts are also been stepped up in cleaning up existing channels to free them off refuse and silts so that they can have the capacity to contain run-off of water with an Emergency Flood Abatement Gang positioned to play a complementary role in the entire drainage black-spot maintenance process chain with its all year round routine maintenance cleaning of highways, Secondary Collector Drains and emergency de-flooding operations all over the state. From its reactivation in October 2019 till date, EFAG had successfully maintained, cleaned and de-flooded a total of 307 km of drains across several LGs of the state. When one considers the magnitude of the difficulties that the Covid-19 brought about and the level of impact achieved in terms of drainages cleaned or constructed in the state, one can safely assume that the year 2021 promises to be better and more engaging with all the dynamics already scheduled to live with the pandemic for a long time to come.
- Adeshina is Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.
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