flood plain in Arida settlement;and its fairy tails by olusegun Ariyo

                                                                                      

A settlement location adjoining isheri corridor along ikotun  in Alimosho local government area of Lagos state has since been battling with flood plain that has unfortunately continued to persist in the process of finding its meeting point in that settlement. Arida, a settlement with dispersed pattern, having  proximity advantage with  [1] Adeyinka,[ 2] john Barovebe,[ 3] Adebari odutoye street and pipeline road has been ravaging with these challenges of flooding for many year back and still counting, said Dr idowu Aseperi, a community leader. 

‘’We have been battling with  these challenge for a while now, there was a certain time the former commissioner of environment, Mr. tunji Bello,  came with some teams of professional  to do some evaluations, where It was discovered that the settlement does not have an evacuation channel where sewage could flow through, and that which was discovered to be the main pressing challenge that has since being encouraging flood to have a meeting point within the concentric zone of our settlement.’’ Days after the visits, the precarious situation continues ‘’. He said persistence flooding  has increasingly becoming an  important issue in our community and stand unabated, which if not adequately addressed and shaped in a good time, it can change the destiny of the whole community which indeed we have started experiencing now.

  The chairman of Arida community Association, Adebayo Abifarin attributed the continuous escalation as a resultant effect of rain-water that flow beyond bounds which the existing channels of drainage net-works could no longer contain and has succeeded to continue submerging their land ‘’ a situation where there are no existing evacuation channel within that jurisdiction, the expected results are what we are seeing now’.’ Accordingly, the threat to life and property with this flood is certainly imminent.  He said ‘’we thank the commissioner of environment for the prompt response, but then, we are yet to see the desired changes it needs.

Lamenting that inadequate of spatial arrangement  of the growing community  and  paucity of drainage infrastructure, poor planning process and the needed political will  , are abound, if we must move from this precarious situation. Thisday learnt that the flooding problem has continue to degenerate to other places like the access roads and has completely hinder the functioning traffic system which indeed has direct consequences on the residence already. Expectedly, flooding of this nature has direct and indirect damage cost as well as possible social consequences, checks also revealed that the flood has continue to crack  the many walls of buildings located in that settlements, the water level has gone above ground level, the extent of flooding in terms of water volume  has escaped  from the existing drainages networks, making way into various buildings.

 Conducting Trumpet-day-news online reporter round to have a glimpse of the situation, it was discovered that the settlement has a slope surface with flow velocity which impact, has potentially been inflicting damages on the physical development, where with,  many of its inhabitants had been severely affected with many buildings sited in the settlement. ‘’Indeed, metropolis that experiences flood is discovered to have long time frame to douse, where some last for weeks on roads, streets, lanes and crescents; and some times become exclusively permanent features of some communities. This unfortunate event came and disappear living with negative impact on the environment.mr Femi Emiloju a residence, said the reoccurrence of this incidence has continued to inflict great hazards to our lives, rendering many residence homeless especially during raining season. ‘’When its starts, it usually over-turn the environment, shut down and ground the settlements, incurs agony on residence’’.

 Trumpet-day-new online also gathered that the drainage evacuation channel is not in existence in that particular location that is said to be the meeting points of the floods plain, it may certainly not as enormous as it were, if the evacuation channel is adequate and the existing once are made standard to accommodate the projected inflow of the amount of litres of sewage the sewer channel can consume. Preventing floods is important to prevent probable loss of life and reduce damage to sites of high economic importance like Arida settlement.

 Rev. Joel olayinka, a feudal lord in that community also believes that the infiltration capacity can no longer contain the runoffs the existing drainage network channels could absorb, allowing land surface of Arida community to become submerged, gradually affecting every foundational structures of building in Arida settlement along isheri corridor and we all know the implications, he submitted. When asked on the next line of action, continuing Aseperi, said we are happy about the immediate steps taken by the ministry of environment, when they brought in their teams of professional in company of the commissioner for the environment.

He said we still need an Action approach to bring the immediate change the environment is faced with at present, to an end. ‘’ we have been invited on several occasion on this issues in particular,  ever since those team visited us but indeed,  we are gradually entering  raining season, and those experiences are better imagined that experiencing physically.’’

 We urge the government of Lagos state   to expediently implement their intervention promise, as it would in no small measures, mitigates other unforeseen hazards, and also help to bring to bearable minimum, the challenges facing the community. Whilst we are using this opportunity to thank his Excellency, we believe in his article of faith he pledged with the people of the state which has since being yielding fruits. It is our hope that ours is not left behind for the change we truly needs, he disclosed.