ALERT: 8 million people may be affected by flood in Lagos

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), on Tuesday, warned that about eight million residents of Lagos state may likely be affected by flood.

Ibrahim Farinloye, the acting coordinator, Lagos territorial office of NEMA, made this known at the flag-off of the “Door to Door 2020 Flood Awareness and Sensitisation Campaign on Prevention, Management and Mitigation of Flood” in Mushin.

Farinloye said that the agency decided to kick off the campaign from Mushin because wastes from Oshodi axis, Surulere, and other parts flow to the canal in Mushin and, thereafter, move to Ijora Badia and Apapa.

He said from Mushin, the team would move to Ijora and Ikorodu for the awareness and sensitisation campaigns to prevent flood disasters.

Farinloye added that NEMA is in partnership with the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Red Cross, and public health practitioners.

According to him, this is to ensure that vulnerable people, especially women and children, are well equipped with adequate information in the case of flooding.

“There have been predictions of flooding in certain areas of Lagos state. So, the federal government wants us to go and sensitise people because we do not want to record any unfortunate incident, especially loss of lives and property,” he said.

“We want to empower people with information against losses. So far so good, we have assessed close to eight million people to be vulnerable to flood disaster in Lagos state.

“Four local government areas have been identified as highly probable flood-prone areas, and about 13 are said to be probable.”

The acting coordinator noted that the highly probable areas to be affected by flood are Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos Mainland, Ikorodu and Mushin.

He said six of the probable areas had already experienced flood, adding that NEMA has carried out vulnerability assessments with certain agencies at the state level.

He also explained that the release of excess water would affect about 30 to 33 areas, mainly in Ikorodu and Kosofe areas.

“People should know we have this danger at hand and they should know what to do when these things happen,” he said.

“Before heavy rain begins, there is the need to clear our drainage channels and that is why we are here to see the situation first-hand.

“If at this time we have this challenge of water not being able to flow, definitely when rains come, the situation will escalate.”