The Lessons & Bitter Truth That We Ought To Learn From The Lagos Rain Floods - Politics - Nairaland
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| The Lessons & Bitter Truth That We Ought To Learn From The Lagos Rain Floods by tundewoods(m): 2:41am On Jul 13, 2011 |
Honestly speaking i was initially oblivious of the mayhem caused by the rain falls of Sunday 10th of July 2011 until the evening when i started getting broadcast messages on my blackberry of the damage caused by the flood, particularly the unimaginable pictures of floods on the streets of Lagos,seeing as cars being submerged by water to the point of mistaking them for speedboats and canoes. No doubt the flood frenzy also was the leading topic on major social networking sites like facebook and twitter with most peoples status updates & tweets being dedicated to share experiences or pictures. No doubt the flood of Sunday did not discriminate based on social status as both the high class areas and middle or low class areas of Lagos were equally dealt with by the rain floods. No doubt residents of highbrow areas such as Victoria Islanders,Ikoyi , Lekki & Surulere will have unforgettable stories to tell not forgetting less exotic areas such as Agege,Mushin, Iyana Ipaja, Aboru, & Ayobo and more. The anguish of the flood exceeded what i personally imagined. I expected to hear stories of flooded houses, broken fences, broken down and damaged cars to mention a few but i never expected to hear so many anguish stories of death caused by the floods. No doubt the floods was just a miniature version of the recent natural disaster in japan caused by the earthquakes and resultant flooding. A peep into the Monday morning newspapers were all filled with headlines and sad stories of the trail of death that the flood left behind. Stories of helpless citizens being carried and swept by the powerful currents of the rain floods. But the fact remains that their are a number of lessons to be learnt from the Sunday flooding incident,these lessons are the bitter truths that i believe will forever hunt us as people and a Nation. I no that this is certainly not the period start the blaming game but i believe this is a period for sober reflection which will enable us see the light and face the realities of day. As we proceed i will give logical explanations why Lagos may continue to experience dreadful floods such as the one we experienced on Sunday,if we as individuals and government do not remedy certain ways of life and trends that have accustomed us here in Lagos. I know a good portion of people will blame government for the woes caused by the floods. Well there are 2 sides to a coin and in a nut shell i will say the blame lays both with us the people while the Lagos state government takes the other half of the blame. When i say we the people own a fair share of the blame for the woes caused by the floods,it is quite simple. You and i know that over here in Nigeria and Lagos particularly,building laws and regulations are least of the things we abide by.An average Lagos Landlord will build any available piece of land he or she has erecting one illegal structure or the other. Its amazing to see this trend of residential houses fences being converted to adjoining walls for lock up shops and stores. I remember taking a course called construction technology while studying quantity surveying some 10 years ago which focused on the need for building to setting out reasonable "building space allowance". I know most of us live in buildings that are fenced to the teeth consuming every inch of space of the actual plots of lands purchased, with virtually no allowance or plan for future gutter drainages when the ministry of works come knocking. Now tell me when these heavy rains come,i guess we expect the laws of evaporation to just saturate the water with out have gutters or drains to lead them to connecting canals. You must be joking. Another impending factor aiding flooding in Lagos is what i would like to attribute to peoples carefree, careless or lackadaisical attitude in the areas of disposing and dumping of waste and the very few organized gutters,drains and canals. Sometimes i refuse to blame this problem on illiteracy or ignorance simply because i personally witness and observe educated and learned people litter and drop waste in these gutters and drains we expect water to pass through during floods and we expect not to witness floods. This leaves one wondering why we have decided to make it our way of life of being carefree and careless and expect not to witness such deadly floods due to the lack of well designed and refuse free drains. No doubt Gov Fashola is working and trying his best to correct so many wrongs that have appeared to become our way of life here in Lagos. With the recent surge in the collapse of old structurally faulty storey buildings he recently reaffirmed the state government's will to take the painful but necessary decision in bulldozing existing structurally defective building structures in Lagos. I believe this should extent towards so many mushroom structures erected on canals blocking water flow in Lagos. Lastly is the my argument or should i call it appeal for the Lagos state government to please absorb as many bright and outstanding graduates of Urban and Regional planning from Universities and Polytechnics in Lagos state. Being once a student myself in the of the School of Environmental Science, I had quite a number of buddies who studied Urban and Regional Planning. The very few ones i am still in touch with are working either in the banking sector or the Oil and Gas sector while some others are just business men and women. Lagos state certainly can not afford to toy around with its urban and regional planning considering the monstrous population that it accounts for. There is no doubt that if both we the citizens and the government play our roles in getting it right. We may just be one step closer to avoiding miniature tsunamis floods similar to the recent one of Sunday 10th of July 2011 from occurring again. |
| Re: The Lessons & Bitter Truth That We Ought To Learn From The Lagos Rain Floods by Nobody: 3:16am On Jul 13, 2011 |
If you know your house is on a drainage channel, call someone to demolish it now  No more time to save face at all All structures on drainage channels should be declared illegal, But please Fashola cover all the gutters to make pedestrian paths. You with holes for water to flow in!! cover all the gutters now seal em off pata pata lol so people will have to use bin cans! I can't imagine me living anywhere in Nigeria when I return seriously! Lagos is my only HOME where I will always be welcomed chieftain style lol!! Awori Yorubas no de dull ooo!! |
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