No fewer than 300 houses have been flooded and 860 households
displaced following the opening of Oyan Dam water, one of the
tributaries of the Ogun River.
The affected areas include Agiliti/Maidan, Orile, Owode, Agboyi and
Araromi communities in Ketu and Mile 12 areas in Lagos; and Akute and
Warewa communities, as well as estates in and around OPIC in Ogun State.
Parts of the Lagos State’s Isheri North Government Reserved Area and
the Lagos State Development And Property Corporation Estate, were also
affected.
Some of the residents, who spoke on the disaster, said
they noticed some floodwater around their streets about two weeks ago
but that by last week, the volume had increased, adding that their
houses had been overrun by water.
The Chairman of Riverview Estate Residents’ Association, Mr. Abayomi
Akinde, who described the incident as tragic, said there was no notice
from the Ogun/Osun River Basin Development Authority (OORBDA) that water
would be released from the Oyan Dam.
Akinde told The Punch that, the flood came despite assurances from
OORBDA that the upsurge of flood which they never anticipated from the
upstream, would not cause any kind of catastrophe.
He said, “The flooding started about three weeks ago when people
started calling that their communities were flooded. People have been
evacuating their homes since then, while some others are trapped. If the
situation persists, everywhere will be submerged. The government needs
to come in. Isheri North GRA, for instance, was sold by Lagos State and
some of the estates were sold by the Ogun State Government. There was
supposed to be proper planning; but we have been left to our fate.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan visited this area four years ago
because of this same problem, but nothing was done after the visit.
“We are appealing to OORBDA to reduce the operating level of the dam
to 54 metres. If the level is reduced, the reservoir will have more
space to hold water and this flooding will be averted.”
A landlord and former chairman of the Nigerian Institution of
Environmental Engineers, Mr. Peter Onyeri, said the problem was lack of
proper funding and management of the dam.
In some of the affected areas, the streets had been taken over and
residents were seen vacating their homes, while some others, who
remained had to reach their houses using canoes.
One of the canoe paddlers, who gave his name as Monday Bassey, said
the cost of moving passengers across the water was between N100 and
N500, depending on the distance.
Bassey said he had lived in the area for eight years and had seen the
area flooded yearly, but that the residents had enjoyed a four-year
break from 2012 before the current incident.
The Managing Director of Ogun/Osun River Basin Development Authority,
Mr. Akintunde Soyemi, said the flooding was aggravated by human
activities.
According to him, it was caused by the opening of one of Ogun River’s
tributaries, Oyan Dam, which was built for fishing, hydro power,
irrigation and flood control.
He said, “Ogun River is a big river cutting across three states with
more than 20 tributaries one of which is Oyan Dam, which is the only one
that is gated and whose release can be controlled.
“This year, we had much more run off; we only released 15 per cent
now, which is done at a controlled rate and is not supposed to flood the
downstream. It is flooding because it is not the only contributory
river. Most of those flooded places are in the flood plain of Ogun
River. The rule of thumb in constructing residences is that you must be
above the level of the road, anywhere below such level will always be
submerged.”
Soyemi, however, said the authority was working on controlling the
flooding and that residents would see an improvement in the coming days.
Thankfully, no life was lost as a result of the flooding.