Lagos Warns Residents Over Imminent Flash Flooding

The Lagos State Government yesterday warned residents to brace for flash flooding threats due to Thursday’s downpour it described as the heaviest in many months.

In a statement, the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources Tokunbo Wahab urged residents of flood-prone areas, including Isheri, Majidun and Kara, to relocate to safer places.

According to him, the situation has been made worse by the release of water from the Oyan Dam. “The channels could no longer discharge into the rivers,” he said.

The commissioner said the intensity of the rainfalls between Wednesday and Thursday had led to the levels of the major rivers rising.

“This is making it difficult for the major drainage channels to discharge until it goes down which is just happening gradually,” he said.

Wahab said the advisory became necessary because the various data gathered from the weather monitoring stations showed that Thursday’s average and maximum values were the highest.

He said: “In the past few weeks, the overall conditions observed show there’s a drastic increase in water level at our four gauge stations within the state and knowing fully well that 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 (calibrated), the water level recorded 2.2 m 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 areas are already experiencing river flooding.”