TUC asks Lagos to discourage residents from building in flood-prone areas

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Lagos has called on the state government to discourage people from building houses on wetlands and areas prone to flooding in order to save the environment.

The council stated this on Friday, in a statement signed by Gbenga Ekundayo and Aladetan Abiodun, council chairman and secretary, respectively.

The statement by TUC is in commemoration of the World Environment Day to be celebrated on June 5.

Quoting data from the ministry of environment, the TUC said over 87 percent of vacant wetlands in Lagos metropolis had been converted to high-density, unplanned residential housing spaces.

The union said this practice is capable of disrupting biodiversity — the variety of plant and animal species in the environment — and harming the environment.

“The loss of capacity of the wetlands to hold surface runoffs may cause flooding and unprecedented destruction of lives and properties of the inhabitants of the state,” the TUC statement reads.

“Further assaults on the wetlands can also deny residents the numerous goods and functions freely delivered by wetlands to the ecosystem and human habitats.

“These include flood storage and distribution; retention of sediments and nutrients; aesthetics; educational benefits; aquifer recharge; groundwater quality improvement, and a host of other benefits which unrestrained assaults on the wetlands may deny Lagos residents.”

TUC also urges the state government to take actions on other environmental issues such as open defecation, noise pollution, air pollution, as well as indiscriminate disposal of untreated sewage into the lagoon and water bodies.