The Lagos State Government has expressed determination to tackle the flooding in Agungi and the environs along the Lekki-Epe Expressway, Eti-Osa Local Government Area, through the construction of a bigger collector along the axis and other identified areas aimed to bring relief to residents.
Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, made this disclosure on Thursday while speaking with newsmen after a thorough assessment of the area following the flooding incidents experienced as a result of the 48 hours of continuous rainfall experienced in the state, adding that the construction of a bigger collector became necessary along Agungi road to prevent flooding in the area.
Wahab, accompanied by the Permanent Secretary, Office of Drainage Services, Engr. Mahamood Adegbite alongside Heads of Agencies and Directors in the Ministry, visited Freedom Park Road/Kusenla Junction, Alpha Beach Road, saying that Emergency Flood Abatement Gang were deployed while the rain was ongoing to clear the debris in the collector at the aforementioned areas to allow free flow of storm water.
He noted that during the tour a minor encroachment was observed along Alfa Beach behind the Jame Hope University where a blockage was discovered, and from Saturday full excavation will start from Alpha Beach to conservation road.
According to Wahab, the construction of a new collector at Agungi Road is just one of the several which the state government would construct to address perennial flooding issues in the identified areas.
“At Agungi, we have agreed that the area needs a new collector that will take the water from the road into the lagoon; the collector they have there is too small to serve the volume of storm water on the Agungi stretch,” he said.
According to him, after the construction of a new collector, Ministry of Works and Infrastructure would also be invited to raise level of road.
Wahab recalled that the flooding issue on System 156 (Up- stream) Alpha Beach Road has been a recurring problem for quite a while, stressing that the dredging of the channel would commence immediately towards making the state flood free.
While condemning the habit where people built to block System 156, he maintained that the state would not fold its hand and allow some people for profit making sake to destroy public infrastructure provided by tax paying public and government.
“Like we have always been saying, people built to block System 156 and some families on this corridor also obliterated with developers to block System 156,” Wahab said.
The commissioner, however, vowed that the state government would continue to ramp up enforcement operations across the state to reclaim setbacks and drainage alignments towards preventing flooding.
