Hauwa Ali
The residents of Lekki, Ajah and Ibeju-lekki have over the years been enduring flooding on major routes and streets leading to their houses and in some common cases, flood inside their homes.
Lekki, a high brow environment located within the Eti-Osa LGA of Lagos, is widely seen as an environment only for the rich; as such, those who reside or own properties in the Lekki axis of Lagos are conceived to belong to the rich class of the society.
Unfortunately, most part of Lekki area which spans from Lekki phase1 all the way to Sangotedo, and parts of Ibeju-lekki LGA are mostly flooded with minor rainfall.
Most areas in the Lekki axis are waterlogged with a lot of shallow, clogged and substandard drainage channels which makes the issue of flooding one common predicament facing residents.
Jakande estate in Lekki, one estate believed to be rejected by the government, is one of the worst hit by flood.
Being an estate without a proper drainage system, the people are always at the receiving end during flooding.
During an interview, residents told Naturenews that the estate was better until the canal on the Lekki beach road was filled with sand.
“There’s no channel through which water can flow, the government sold the part of the land that has a canal that we channel water to and they have filled up the canal with sand. The estate is flooded because water cannot flow anywhere again.” Said Joshua the leader (as he calls himself), one of the Landlords in the estate.
Another resident, Fidelis Onu explained that the estate is littered with waste because of the stagnant water, as a result of flood.
“We use our wastes to fill up the potholes in the estate to create parts or roads so that we can move around.”
The site at Jakande estate Lekki, whenever it rains, it is horrific and the smell emanating from wastes littered around in the estate is terrible and discomforting.
Other flooded areas in Lekki include: Agungi which does not have proper drainage channels. Also the central road and some streets within Agungi are known for flooding. The contributory factors are because there are no sufficient drainage channels; even the available few are not maintained and are always blocked.
The Osapa axis of Lekki has always been known for flooding. The situation got worsened by the recent flood. The drainage channels, as well as the canals in the area, were overwhelmed by the flow.
Parts of Ikota is naturally sloppy and always in wet conditions. Even after minor rainfall, the roads in those areas always contain stagnant water. There are also no sufficient drainage channels there and the available few are too shallow and are always blocked, there is hardly free flow due to lack of maintenance.
Others are Sangotedo, Awoyaya and other parts of Lekki-Epe express way without proper drainage systems, causing residents so much hardship due to flooded streets and in some cases flooded homes.
