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A video surfaced online of a white man paddling a boat in the flood. At Lekki Phase 1, several vehicles broke down on the road giving some hoodlums popularly known as Area Boys the opportunity to make money. Depending on their bargaining power, motorists were made to cough up between N1,500 and N2,500 for their vehicles to be pushed out of the water.<\/p>\nIn a bid to avoid flooded roads, several motorists drove against the traffic, causing more chaos on the road. At Adetokunbo Ademola and adjoining streets on Victoria Island, several homes were overrun by the flood. Public transport operators aborted their trips and passengers were forced to alight from the buses.<\/p>\n
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Sharing a photo of a flooded duplex in his area, Erheriene said, \u201cAreas from Lekki Phase 1 all the way down to the Lekki Free Trade Zone have been partially submerged in flood. The situation has caused people to be stranded and broken down in spirit. Where will I sleep now?\u201d<\/p>\n
Also the flood did not spare the residents of Banana Island, the uber-rich enclave where plots of land are sold for as much as N500m.<\/p>\n
Parts of the large estate which is home to some of the country\u2019s richest men were heavily flooded. On 2nd Avenue both sides of the dualised road were flooded.<\/p>\n
According to a tweeter handler Uwajeh Samuel wrote that, \u201cI was on my way to the estate this morning. Had to make a turn back to the mainland when I saw the flood on banana island road.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a post on social media by one of the residents in the Victoria Island area of Lagos, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju narrated how the downpour kept her indoors.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I\u2019m rained in! There is water at my gate. One more downpour and my driveway will be flooded. I\u2019m told water is entering a friend\u2019s house through the window. They are all upstairs stranded. Accept my sympathy. Sell the land for N70m and move to Akute. Wahala in Africa\u2019s most affluent slum,\u2019\u2019 she wrote.<\/p>\n
The Lagos State Police Command urged commuters to avoid the Ahmadu Bello Way until the flood subsided. The State Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Mr. Fatai Owoseni,\u00a0urged residents to take alternative routes, noting that efforts were ongoing to drain the flood so that the road would be passable.<\/p>\n
The police boss said the decision was made to avert disaster, owing to the flood, which found its way into the diesel storage of a filling station.<\/p>\n
A Lagos resident who spoke about the situation on condition of anonymity, said, \u201cThe major issue is not the heavy rain in Lagos. It is the fact that, over the years, there was no proper planning of the city by successive governments, despite the rapid urbanisation and population increase.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a souce the frequent flooding in several parts of the affected areas was due to the poor drainage system in Lagos as well as the dredging going on at Eko Atlantic City.<\/p>\n At Obalende and Ikoyi, many residents were seen with various sizes of buckets scooping water out of their flooded homes.<\/p>\n There were also several pictures on the Internet showing apartments in a soggy situation with cars nearly submerged.<\/p>\n A taxi driver, who spoke with one of our correspondents in Obalende, said the deluge paralysed their business, noting that some of their vehicles were stalled in the flood.<\/p>\n According to the driver, the rain started at about 11pm on Friday night and continued into the morning of Saturday and rolled into sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, we can\u2019t go into Ikoyi and some other parts of Victoria Island. As you can see, no taxi driver is willing to take the risk of driving to those areas, even though many people are begging us to go. We tell them to either take a motorcycle or trek,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Commenting on the flooding,\u00a0 a Senior Lecturer of Geography at the University of Ibadan, Dr. Ibidun Adelekan, described the developmental activities on the islands of Lagos State as magnets for flood.<\/p>\n Adelakun, who specialises in climate and development and human dimensions of global environmental change, said that the\u00a0 flooding in Lagos was due to heavy rain and high population.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, with more people and buildings, you have more artificial surfaces than natural surfaces \u2014 all the construction, roads, and buildings. The natural surfaces, like the soil and vegetated area; when it rains, infiltration can take place. But when you have artificial surfaces, then you have more of run-off. Also, in many parts of Lagos, the drainage capacity is low; in some cases, the drains were constructed many years ago and now you have more rainfall.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done some analysis and statistically, we\u2019re having heavier rainfall. So, sometimes, the capacity of the drainage is not enough to carry away the storm water. A lot of drainage channels are blocked or you have people depositing water sachets, tyres and all kinds of things. That also reduces the drainage capacity. Once the storm water goes into the drainage channels, it overflows.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the island, we have the coast and that means the elevation is lower. With that, you also have high water tables and lower coastal areas; the underground water is higher, so once there is more rainfall, the infiltration capacity cannot be as high as the mainland area. In the coastal area, there is also a tendency for graduation: the slope goes down towards the sea, so all the water will tend to flow towards the coastal area, that is, the island.\u00a0 So, we have more water around that area.\u201d<\/p>\n Adelakun called on the Lagos State Government to encourage people not to throw solid waste into the drainage channels.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people are building, they should make allowance for natural areas also. Another reason why we have flooding is that, because these are wetlands, a lot of land reclamation, especially in terms of sand filling, is taking place. Wetlands are buffers for floods. So, when you start filling swampy areas to make way for buildings, you\u2019re also reducing the capacity of the natural environment to serve as buffers for flood. That should also be discouraged\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important factors are heavy rainfall, sanitation and drainage. But for Lagos, especially the place where the flooding is, there is not much we can do because it\u2019s near sea level.\u201dMeanwhile, the Lagos State Government has called on residents to be cautious on the roads as torrential rain persists across the state.<\/p>\n In a statement issued on Saturday by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, the government warned that \u201cheavy downpour should be expected for a few more weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cThe government solicits the support of citizens to desist from dumping refuse in the canals and gutters, and observe safe and hygienic practices at all times in order to reduce the effect of temporary flooding being recorded in some areas. \u201cThe government also urges residents to make use of emergency numbers in case of dire situations.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/punchng.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/09021625\/passing-d-flood.jpg\")
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