Lagos Commissioner Wahab blasts Rhodes-Vivour over flood comments, clarifies causes

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, has faulted the comments made by the Labour Party’s 2023 governorship candidate, Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, connected caller flash floods successful the state, describing them arsenic politically motivated.

In a connection issued connected Thursday, Wahab said the Labour Party candidate’s remarks were “simplistic” and aimed much astatine seeking attraction than providing solutions.

“While we were engaged moving connected immediate, short, medium, and semipermanent solutions to the caller flash flooding successful immoderate parts of Lagos, my attraction was drawn to a simplistic proposition by Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour—an thought driven much by governmental correctness and inexpensive attention-seeking than genuine problem-solving,” Wahab stated.

He explained that Lagos, similar Venice, Amsterdam, Bangkok, and Jakarta, is an aquatic metropolis prone to flooding owed to its low-lying terrain and proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. According to him, the floods successful Lekki were a “compound event” caused by dense downpours coinciding with precocious tides, a improvement known arsenic tide-locking.

“When the oversea level is high, h2o cannot permission our drains quickly, and streets clasp h2o for a fewer hours earlier it recedes. Outfalls that link drains to the lagoon cannot bare fast, truthful h2o backs up. This is the world of coastal cities worldwide,” helium said.

Wahab outlined the state’s flood absorption strategy arsenic a three-part approach: impermanent h2o detention, moving h2o done wider and clearer channels, and controlling backflow with one-way valves and pumps.

He highlighted ongoing efforts, including:

Maintenance of 579 km of secondary collectors and 309 km of superior channels.

Clearing of 444 km of drains by rapid-response teams.

Restoration of 40.3 km of encroached channels.

Construction of 218 caller drainage channels, which volition adhd 1,500 km erstwhile completed.

The commissioner besides revealed that pumps are being installed successful flood-prone areas, with the archetypal installation undergoing investigating astatine Ilubirin connected Lagos Island. Near-term actions see intensified silt clearance, installation of debris screens, and aviator property lakes for h2o detention.

Medium- to semipermanent plans, according to Wahab, impact creating a Lekki Blue-Green Network, installing flap gates astatine tide-sensitive outfalls, restoring wetlands, and updating gathering codes to mandate on-site stormwater retention successful caller projects.

He further stressed the relation of due discarded absorption successful reducing flood risks, noting that Lagos has banned Styrofoam and begun enforcement of single-use integrative restrictions. Waste-to-energy projects, worldly betterment facilities, and 15,000 thoroughfare sweepers are besides portion of the broader flood mitigation strategy.

“Floods are driven by physics, not politics,” Wahab said. “Our program is to store, move, and power water—supported by maintenance, enforcement, aboriginal warning, and wide nationalist metrics—so that heavier-than-usual rainfall positive precocious tide nary longer means disruption for Lagosians.”

Citing planetary flood events successful Japan, Florida, and Western Europe, helium stressed that clime change, not politics, is the existent operator of utmost upwind conditions.

“Obviously, attending an Ivy League schoolhouse is not a conferer of intelligence,” Wahab added successful a swipe astatine Rhodes-Vivour.

The station Lagos Commissioner Wahab blasts Rhodes-Vivour implicit flood comments, clarifies causes appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.