…Working on 268 channels across the state
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tunji Bello, has ordered removal of shanties near drainage channels for proper flow of water through drainage in the state before Friday June 19 this year.
The commissioner gave the directive during an inspection of the ongoing drainage clearance the state government organised on Saturday June 13.
The drainage areas include: Ikoyi Victoria Island, Bourdilon/Oyinkan Abayomi collector drain by Oyinkan Abayomi outfall, Awolowo road/Raymond Njoku/five cowrie by Raymond Njoku Road, and Dodan Barraks/Norman Williams/Aunty Ayo/St. Gregory road/Awolowo road.
Others are: Musa Yar’adua, Bourdilon Channel by Dolphin Estate, Ijeh barracks collector drain Adeola Odeku, Akin Olugbade, Sapara Williams, Kofo Abayomi, Ozumba Mbadiwe, by the outfall on Ozumba Mbadiwe, Karimu Kotun and Akin Adeola among others.
Bello adds: “The present administration is committed to proffering a lasting solution to the issue of flooding across the state”.
Speaking further, the commissioner vowed that they would continue to visit all the drainage channels in the state to know the true state of canals and resolve every problem identified with flooding while listening to the residents.
To achieve this, Bello pleaded with illegal occupants to remove their belongings and allow the ministry pack all the silts in the drainage channels.
He warned: “The whole of Victoria Island is below the sea level. Automatically, when it rains heavily, the water will accumulate and it takes time to drain.”
Continuing, he says from all indications, they were satisfied with the clearance of drainage channels but to remove the silt, they needed to evacuate all the gates mounted at the drainage entrance to protect encroachment and fix it back.
Bello assured residents: “We will continue working with residents’ associations because they are supporting the government with adequate information on indiscriminate trading around the area.”
The ministry, however, said it gave occupants some days to evacuate their property. “They cannot be selling and sleeping and also dumping their refuse inside the drains,” says Bello.
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser on the Drainage Services, Joe Igbokwe, maintained that resident engineers from the ministry would always be around to work with the Community Development Association (CDAs) to ensure adequate monitoring after the completion of the clearance of the drainage channels.
“The ministry is working on 46 primary channels and 222 secondary channels. We embarked on monitoring and evaluation to ascertain the level of work done,” he divulged.
