The Lagos State Government has raised the alarm over a renewed threat of flash flooding in the state following the intensity of rainfall experienced on Thursday, which has been described as the heaviest in many months.
The government, in a statement signed by the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, obtained on Sunday, explained that coupled with the release of water by the authorities of Oyan Dam, the channels could no longer discharge into the rivers.
He said the intensity of the rainfalls between Wednesday and Thursday led to the levels of the major rivers rising, thus making it difficult for the major drainage channels to discharge until it goes down.
Wahab said the latest flash flood advisory became necessary because the various data gathered from the weather monitoring stations in the state showed that Thursday’s average and maximum values were the highest so far this year.
Wahab said, “In the past few weeks, the overall conditions observed show there’s been a drastic increase in water levels at our four gauge stations within the state, and we are fully aware that the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority is releasing water from two gates of the Oyan Dam, as announced earlier.”
“A few days ago, at Kara, the water level recorded 2.2m which most likely might hit the threshold any time soon. At Isheri-North GRA, the water level was recorded at 20.015m which is above the flood threshold. This shows that the catchment areas along these axes are already experiencing river flooding.
“At Majidun, in the whole year, the peak water level was recorded on October 14 at 1.466m while the minimum value was at 0.538m. At Falomo, with the incessant rainfall coupled with water releases from OORBDA, both upstream and downstream of Lagos State will experience flooding along the corridors.”
Wahab reiterated that data available for the year also showed that October had much higher readings compared to previous months while minutes and hourly readings for October also showed consistently heightened water level readings when compared to previous months and other years.
He stressed the need for people living in low-lying areas and the banks of the Ogun River to put their safety first by moving upland and prevent avoidable loss of lives and properties because the state would still experience more rainfalls this month.
In July, business and commercial activities were grounded following a 10-hour downpour in many parts of Lagos and Ogun states.
The flooding that resulted from the downpour brought down a two-storey building in the Mushin area of Lagos, grounded vehicular movement on the roads and overwhelmed thousands of residents while pupils could not attend schools in parts of the states.
Though the Lagos State government said the rain lasted for nine hours, in some parts of the state, it started at midnight and did not subside until noon, making it 12 hours.
Source: Punch
