By Uche Amunike
The Lagos State Government has alerted residents of more flooding likely to bedevil the state, judging from the intense rainfall witnessed by the state on Thursday, which has been seen as the heaviest to be witnessed in the state in the past, so far.
Speaking, through a statement signed by the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, he stated that water channels could no longer be discharged into the rivers, due to the release of water by the Oyan Dam.
He further explained that the intensity of the rainfalls witnessed in the state between Wednesday and Thursday contributed to the rising of major rivers, therefore, making it hard for the major drainage channels to discharge, until it goes down.
According to him, the latest flash flood advisory became expedient because of the various data gathered from the weather monitoring stations on the state, which indicated that so far, the highest this year remained Thursday’s average and maximum values.
His words: ‘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.’
He further stated that the available data for 2024 showed that there were more higher readings in October, compared to earlier months, even as minutes and hourly readings for October indicated heightened water level readings, unlike previous months and years.
He enjoined residents in low-lying areas and the banks of the Ogun River to put their safety first by moving upland and preventing avoidable loss of lives and properties, because there would be more rainfalls and flooding this year.
Recall that business and commercial activities were pulled to a stop in July, after flooding that was caused by a 10-hour downpour in various parts of Lagos and Ogun States. It brought down a two-storey building in Mushin axis, grounded vehicular movements and also prevented pupils and teachers from attending school in several parts of the state.
Even though the Lagos State government has confirmed that rain fell for nine hours in certain areas in the state, it started raining at midnight in some other areas and continued raining till noon, totaling it to 12 hours.
