Residents of Abule-Oki and eight other adjoining communities in Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State have appealed to the state government to complete the dredging and the concrete lining of the Aboru canal.
According to them, the non-completion of the walls of Arigbanla canal have exposed them to and put them at the mercy of a deluge of flood, which at its peak often rises up to nine feet, submerging everything and destroying lives and property.
Rising from a meeting last Thursday, the residents urged Governor Babatunde Fashola to; “save them and their properties from the ‘confluence of fury’ of the flood in their neighbourhood.”
They argued that they had continued to suffer environmental degradation as a result of government’s effort to de-flood some parts of the state.
According to them, their communities, which has been laid waste by flood had never experienced such and had been immune to the savagery of the floods until the area became a melting point for about eight separate flood water paths. Abule Oki, they specifically claimed, now receives waste water from Ahmaddiya, Agbelekale/Ekoro, Papa Ashafa/Mulero, Orile Agege/Dopemu, Oke Shagun, Akinola and Oke-Odo/Abule Egba.
“Many more canals have been channeled into this area, leaving Abule Oki, Akinola, Raji Rasaki and adjoining communities more devastated by the flood abatement activities of the government,” a resident said.
The Chairman of the Committee on Canal Dredging of the communities, Alhaji Kamarudeen Bamidele, said Abule Oki which is the confluence point for all the flood water channeled to the area, is worse hit as the contractor – Messrs Dully Dredging and Construction Company have abandoned the work.
The chairman expressed the residents’ displeasure that the project which was awarded since February 2012 with a 12-month completion has been abandoned, with dire consequences to the people. According to him, the project ought to have been completed since January 2013.
Bamidele, a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) retiree, alleged the loss of several lives and properties to the perennial flooding as a result of the neglect of the canal dredging.
He said: “Personally, I lost over N14 million in a fish pond investment in 2011, when we experienced the worst devastating flood that necessitated this canal dredging. Several landlords lost their homes to the flood and many tenants relocated because the entire area became submerged. So many houses sunk and several houses were abandoned and were overgrown with weeds as if they were virgin lands.”
But the area was never prone to flood. In fact, flood, according to Superior Evangelist Stephen Oduntan of the Celestial Church of Christ, who is also the Vice Chairman of the Canal Dredging Committee, was a rarity.
“This area was never prone to flood when I moved into this area in the 70s,” he recalled.
Continuing, he said: “We were never troubled by flood. In, fact, this same river that is now heavily polluted, was where we baptized new converts. Everything changed a little over a decade ago and since then, things have never been the same again.”
Bamidele claimed that everybody in the government, including the governor and the two concerned government agencies – the Ministries of the Environment and Information & Strategy, knew about the plight of his people in the hands of the confluence of fury. He wondered why the government would fold its arms while a contractor who claimed (at a stakeholders meeting while the project was about to start) would walk from without any repercussion.
He said: “Sequel to the flood disaster of 2011, government decided to dredge all canals around the state and Arigbanla was dredged and the concrete lining was done, since then, they never experienced flooding in those areas again.
“When they met with us, we were assured that our canal would be dredged and a concrete lining carried out at three different locations. We were told a ‘gang’ would work from Ahmaddiya Area at Oke-Odo down to Agbelekale, the second ‘gang’ shall work from Pleasure Bus Stop along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway to link up with Arigbanla, from where waste water from Abbatoir and other canals have been channeled, into Abule Oki and the third gang would work from Akinola Area towards Command.
“While work started at a slow pace at the Ahmaddiya/Agbelekale axis, nothing was done at the Abule Oki/Akinola end, and this axis, especially Abule Oki is where you have this heavy flood confluence.
“One of the assurances we were given then, was that a concrete median lining would be constructed along this confluence to channel the flood water, but nothing of such has been done.”
The chairman wondered why the contractor would fail to address the dredging and concrete lining of the Aboru canal from Abeokuta Expressway (Arigbanla end), where the flood hit hardest and nothing had been done till date.
He said the two culverts constructed on Jimoh Street and Ige Street should be removed and replaced by bridges as the former have continued to worsen the people’s plights and pains because they are usually silted, leading to heavy flooding.
He listed the demands of the communities to include the immediate dredging of the Aboru canal to reduce the pains of residents of the about 10 communities affected by the flood the population of which he put at over eight million.
Every month, he said, residents spend between N18, 000 and N25, 000 to clear the canal and the culverts of debris which has resulted into a reduction in incidences of flooding anytime it rains.
“We do not know our fate anymore. We have lived with this neglect for over two years now and that is why we are appealing to the government to come to our aid before the next rainy season,” he said.
Another community leader, Mr. Solomon Agboghoroma, who have been living in Abule Oki since 1979, said the incidences of flooding was alien to the community until the last decade when government’s activities became more pronounced.
He said: “Now, I spend between N300,000 –N400,000 yearly to reinforce my fence and protect my house from flood, yet, water usually submerge my house every time it rained heavily in the area. I no longer have tenants because the entire ground floor has been taken over by flood.”
Agboghoroma said government should come to the aid of the residents to prevent grave loss of lives and property.
Bamidele, who presented series of letters sent to the state governor on the aborted canal dredging, the latest of which was sent to the governor on September 29, 2014, pleaded with the government to revisit the Aboru canal dredging as further delay would further threaten integrity of the culverts, the base of which has been exposed and weakened by the volume of water passing underneath.
All attempts to get any response from the supervising engineer, Mr Ajadi proved abortive as he neither picked his calls nor responded to the SMS sent to his mobile telephone devise.
He said what the communities needed was not palliative measures such as the similar measures carried in August last year never solved the problem.
He said the communities should be looking forward to steps being taken that would assure a lasting solution and save the residents from the yearly flooding that has put their existence in the area perpetual threat.
But, the state government said: “Dredging of Akinola River is an ongoing project with the dredging work along the downstream of the channel to the discharge point at Aiyetoro Bridge in Ogun State completed.
“The contractor was advised to concentrate on the dredging of the downstream in order to create adequate capacity for the channel and for effective discharge of other channels/drains (collectors and tributaries) that are contributing to the channel. It should be mentioned that one of the tributaries to the channel is Ilo-Awela River of which its dredging is at advance stage.
“With the dredging of the downstream completed (from Ige Street in Akboru to Aiyetoro Bridge in Ogun State), the catchment of Aboru and Command are now flood free.
“The Ministry has concentrated on the need to ensure that the entire catchment area of the channel is flood free.
“What is uppermost to the State Government is the functionality of the canal and the need to reduce /eliminate the incidence of flooding in the areas.”
