By Fabian Ekeruche
An Environmental Activist for Climate Justice, Mr Sulaimon Arigbabu, has called for an improvement in environmental sanitation and waste management practices in Lagos State to avert flooding in the state.
Arigbabu, who is also the Executive Secretary, Human and Environmental Development Agenda( HEDA Resource Centre) gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
According to him, environmental sanitation is poor in Lagos state.
“These has to do a lot with citizens behaviour, which has to be changed and of course service delivery from the side of government.
“But I think if we have been experiencing flooding with significant impact on us, then we as citizens have to do a lot more in terms of environmental sanitation practices before we ask government to come and do its part,” Arigbabu said.
He said that the attitude of tenements dropping their wastes on road medians was inimical to good environmental and waste management practices.
“Our waste management practice is poor.
“You see that a lot of our waterways are clogged with pet bottles and other wastes.
“As cosmopolitan as Lagos is, you still find communities that empty their waste bins into the gutter when the rain falls, believing that the rain water will take the waste away from them,” Arigbabu said.
He said that there was an urgent need to do a lot more on waste management, both on the sides of residents and that of the government.
“As we speak now, you still find many areas in Lagos state where people are keeping their wastes at the median, on the streets and if any major rain falls, all of that goes into the drainage system and becomes a nuisance for us.
“But the most critical is how do we stop our wastes, plastic bottles, etc, from ending in water ways or even getting to dumpsites.
“We know that a lot of these wastes can be repurposed, recycled, reused, in ways that are more beneficial, instead of ending up in our waterways,” Arigbabu said.
He noted that flooding, especially in Lagos, could be as a result of heavy rainfall or poor environmental management practices.
He said that flooding occurs because our drainage carrying capacity is not adequate or our environmental sanitation practices hinders the carrying capacity of our drainage, such that after a little rain, you see flash urban flooding, which Lagos is very much predisposed to.
He explained that Lagos State has large coastal front, making it open to coastal flooding, especially as we experience sea level rising.
“But Lagos also suffers urban flooding, this is largely because the carrying capacity of most of our drainages is inadequate and the maintenance also is inadequate.
“So many of the gutter ways are silted and they not regularly desilted, and sometimes when it is done, it is a bit late,” Arigbabu said.
He noted that part of the recent forecast for Lagos, showed that the state would experience both coastal and urban flooding.
“Not only are we going to experience coastal flooding, which we cannot do much about, but we can help the people to reduce the impact on them.
“But the biggest challenge for Lagos has to do with urban flooding, alot of which is due to flash flooding from poor waste management that has clogged our water drainage systems
“We need to pay more attention, we need to increase the carrying capacity of our drainage system, the network needs to improve.
“We need to improve on the management and these are the responsibilities for LGAs, state government and resident associations as well,” Arigbabu said.
He said that recent flood outlook followed a trajectory that has reoccurred in the last decade.
He said that the forecast show that flooding has been more and more recurring with very devastating impact.
“What we must be able to acknowledge is that Nigeria is improving in terms of its ability to forecast climate events.
“What has, however, not improved is our response. How is it that year in, year out, flooding is predicted, how come it continues to have the same impact on people,” Arigbabu said.
