• Pledges to ramp up infrastructure for lasting solutions
• Eight dead, farmlands destroyed by flood in Ebonyi community
Lagos State Government has admitted that residents would continue to experience flash flooding due to climate change and other environmental factors.
The government, however, reiterated its commitment to ramping up infrastructure to provide lasting solutions across the state.
The state’s Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, stated this, yesterday, during an interview on television, noting that in the last two years, the ministry had cleaned over 50 kilometres of secondary collectors and dredged or maintained about 38 primary channels across the state.
Wahab, who recalled the recent torrential rainfall that affected parts of Ikorodu, said the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) had given an early forecast in March, prompting the ministry to begin massive advocacy in April.
He said that residents were briefed multiple times that rainfall this year would surpass last year’s levels.
MEANWHILE, no fewer than eight persons have been confirmed dead and over 800 people’s farmlands destroyed following a devastating flood at Enohia Itim Community in Afikpo Local Council of Ebonyi State.
In a statement yesterday, the Public Relations Officer of the Council, Sunday Nkama, said that the tragic flood incident occurred at a plantain plantation in the council.
Nkama said that out of the eight people, including three children, who lost their lives to the flood, three bodies had been recovered while five are still missing.
Chairman of the council, Timothy A. U, who expressed sadness over the sad incident, has extended condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.
He assured the people of the government’s support and pledged to collaborate with relevant state and federal agencies to provide humanitarian assistance and timely relief to those affected.
