Punch
A homely apartment sheltering Mrs Dorcas Nicholas, her husband and their children became a desolate ambience last Friday. The family squatted in their neighbour’s room for three trying nights elongated by uneasy sleep.
They were among several households temporarily displaced by floods that rocked Jakande Estate and other parts of Lekki, Lagos State last Friday. Furniture, clothes, electronics and household equipment were submerged, leaving Nicholas helpless.
The woman sells slippers at a stand a stone’s throw from Block 110 where she resides and was able to quickly return home to watch over the apartment when the rain started that day.
She ensured that all windows were shut and doors firmly closed only to be hamstrung by the volume of water that gushed out from every corner of the room.
“I can’t even explain how the water entered our room,” Nicholas said, her voice fused with a pall of anxiety. “Our room was filled with water. It spoiled our belongings, especially my children’s clothes. It destroyed our television set and a cable decoder. We are still cleaning the house,” she stated in a chat with our correspondent on Wednesday.
Aside from counting her losses, Nicholas had to grapple with the trauma inflicted by rainwater that was supposed to be a blessing.
She lamented, “All of us spent the night in our neighbour’s apartment upstairs for three days. I was disorganised. It was on Sunday that I started cleaning the room. The apartment is still wet as of today (Wednesday). I have been living here for 15 years.
“We clear the drainage channel every Thursday and the government also helps us to clear it occasionally. I think the problem is that the channel is too narrow to contain the volume of water discharging into it.”
A heavy rain that fell for about four hours last Friday left a number of houses and highways in the state flooded with many commuters stuck in gridlock. Worst hit were locations on the island, including Jakande Estate, Awoyaya, Lekki Phase 1, Ajah and Marina, where tens of vehicles in car parks were submerged.
In one viral video, passengers in a BRT bus whose interior was already deluged were seen screaming about the frightening sight. In other clips, houses and stationary vehicles were engulfed in water while motorists caught in traffic waded through waterlogged roads.
On Thursday in Kano, a downpour mixed with whirlwinds lasting about three hours wreaked havoc as it submerged some homes at Kundila Housing Estate opposite the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital on Zaria Road. Other houses within the metropolis were also reported to have been submerged by flood, causing a high level of destruction. Recently, severe floods submerged about 300 buildings in several communities in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, after a downpour in the affected locations.
Residents lament poor drainage channels
Unlike the Nicholas’ who squatted with their neighbour, Kunle Jolomi, a teacher at a private school in Lekki, had no respite from the natural disaster. Together with his wife and two kids, they stayed inside their flooded apartment bailing out water every day.
“I live close to Oba Elegushi New Market, Jakande Estate,” the 36-year-old teacher said as he began to share his family’s plight. “The water was just gushing out from the floor. It spoiled a lot of things in my room. We used planks to raise our bed and slept in the pool of water for three days because we have nowhere to relocate to.”
As of Wednesday, the water had almost disappeared from the teacher’s room but his worry was far from over – he feared another heavy rain would spell trouble for his family.
He stated, “Some years ago, I had to pack out of the house at night with my children and wife due to flooding. At times, we checked into a nearby hotel or spent a week in a friend’s house. I wasn’t at home last Friday when it rained. It was some people who assisted my wife.”
Jolomi said structures built on flood plains within the estate were one of the factors responsible for flooding, noting that “there is no proper evacuation of the drainage channel.”
“Also, there is no gutter to channel the water away from the premises to the drainage channel on the road. The gutters are blocked,” he added.
A pastor, Sunday Mefor, was not spared by the disaster though his presence at home during the rain minimised the damage to his property. He lamented that flooding had become a frequent problem in the community.
He said, “It affected many residents. I have been bailing out water since last Friday and up till now (Wednesday) there is water in my room. I was at home when the rain started so I was able to salvage some of my property.
“It would have destroyed everything if I wasn’t around. We have not really felt the government presence since we were relocated here from Maroko in 1990. But during elections, politicians come to canvass vote.”
Taiwo Bashorun never thought of relocating to his hometown in Badagry any time soon but the havoc wreaked by the Friday flooding left him and his family with no choice.
He stated, “After the Friday rain, we could not stay in the house for three days. My wife, our two children and I had to relocate to Badagry. Some of my electronic appliances got spoiled.
“It (flooding) happens every year. The drainage system is not good enough. It is narrow for the volume of water discharging into it. There is a lot of erosion in Jakande Estate; the government should help us find a solution to it.”
The Chairman, Epetedo Community Development Association, Lagos Island, Bola Hassan, told Saturday PUNCH that several streets were flooded that day, stating that residents were displaced.
He said, “Many areas in Adeniji-Adele were flooded. Several vehicles were also submerged. Some houses were built on drainage channels, thereby preventing free flow of water. That causes the water to overflow and flood the streets.
“Also, sand filling of Ilubirin (land reclamation) is also contributing to flooding on Lagos Island because it doesn’t allow water to flow properly. The government should reconstruct drainage channels and make them wide enough. Some drainage channels are blocked.”
Global flooding amid climate change
Reacting to the disaster, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotosho, said flooding was a global phenomenon and was not peculiar to Lagos State.
He had said, “When you go to Germany, you will see that what we have here is a flash flood. What is happening to us is climate change. The world is going through change. I am not unsympathetic to the pain of the people but the floods aren’t caused by bad drainage. Our drainage channels are in good condition. Within two to three hours after the rain, you will see that the flood will end. All the water would have gone through the drainage channels.”
Omotosho said the government had been warning Lagosians about the impending flood and advised them to get prepared.
He added, “We warned them against blocking the drainage, pouring dirt in the channel, building houses on water pathways and other unapproved locations. More importantly, they should maintain a clean environment.”
Indeed, many parts of Europe, America and Asia have had a fair share of flooding in recent days despite boasting a high level of urban planning and infrastructure.
A few days ago, the world woke up to the devastating and shocking scenes of the deadly floods that swept across Western Germany, parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and northern France.
The flooding was so intense that it echoed images of deluges from Africa during the rainy season. As the level of destruction to property and loss of lives filtered through, Germany, one of the most technologically-advanced countries in the world, battled flooding.
When the rains first started on July 13, no one expected that the severe storms would cause rain to fall for 24 hours– swelling streams that eventually triggered massive landslides and washed away houses and cars.
According to the Associated Press, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was stricken by the massive devastation the floods wreaked on Adenau when she visited the town. She described the scene as terrifying.
So far, according to the NBC, at least 196 people have been confirmed dead – 165 in Germany and 31 in Belgium – and the numbers were expected to rise as hundreds more remain missing.
In central China, about 33 people have died and eight remain missing following floods that left some parts of the country devastated. The torrential rainfall caused neighbourhoods to be submerged, trapped passengers in subway cars, caused dams and rivers to overflow and resulted in terrible landslides.
Torrential rains have battered Henan province since last weekend, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and causing 1.22 billion yuan (about $190 million) of economic damage, Henan authorities said Thursday.
In Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, a viral video was posted by some trapped commuters underground on Line 5 of the Zhengzhou subway. Hundreds of commuters could be seen trapped in rising water as murky torrents gushed into the tunnel and seeped into carriageways. Some of them clung to ceiling handles to keep their heads above the rising waters.
In another video, several bodies were seen lying lifeless on the platform, while rescuers tried desperately to resuscitate some of them. Authorities disclosed that in all, over 500 passengers were evacuated from the subway line while 12 were killed and five others injured.
The United States of America is not left out of the disaster that has now become a global phenomenon. In the city of Flagstaff, Arizona, residents have been inundated by monsoon storms that caused flooding resulting in the destruction of property and the death of a man on a rafting trip in the Grand Canyon.
Two Nigerians who witnessed the flooding in Europe but unaffected by it also narrated their experiences. One of them living in Belgium identified only as Joshua said that he had moved to the country about 10 years ago.
Joshua stated that since the rains started last week, he had not been able to take on new jobs to earn money as everyone, including him, was concerned about the safety of their lives and property. He said, “When the warning came from the government advising residents in Liege to either evacuate the city or move to higher grounds, I was confused on what to do as I was worried about the safety of my wife and two kids. Thankfully, we were able to relocate to a friend’s house in Brussels before the flood overtook the city.”
