Heavy rainfall: Lagos govt alerts residents over imminent flash flooding

Lagos State Government has alerted residents over the possible threat of flash flooding in the state following the high intensity of rainfall experienced in the state, last Thursday, which has been described as “heaviest in many months.”

State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, while giving the alert at the weekend, explained that coupled with the release of water by the authorities of Oyan Dam, the channels could no longer discharge into the rivers.

Wahab said; “The intensity of the rainfalls between Wednesday and Thursday has led to the levels of the major rivers rising, therefore, making it difficult for the major drainage channels to discharge until it goes down which is just happening gradually.”

Wahab said the latest flash flood advisory had become necessary in view of the fact the various data gathered from the weather monitoring stations in the state showed that Thursday’s average and maximum values were the highest so far this year.

“In the past few weeks, the overall conditions observed show there’s a drastic increase in water level at our four gauge stations within the State and knowing fully well that Ogun Osun River Basin Development Authority is releasing water from two gates of the Oyan Dam as announced earlier.

“A few days ago, at Kara (calibrated), the water level recorded 2.2m which most likely might hit the threshold any time soon. At Isheri-North GRA, the water level was recorded at 20.015m which is above the flood threshold. This shows that the catchment areas along these axes are already experiencing river flooding.

“At Majidun, in the whole year, the peak water level was recorded on the 14th of October at 1.466m while the minimum value was at 0.538m. At Falomo, with the incessant rainfall coupled with water releases from OORBDA, both upstream and downstream of Lagos State will experience flooding along the corridors,” Wahab explained.

He reiterated that data available for the year also showed that the month of October had much higher Readings compared to previous months while minutes and hourly readings for October also show consistently heightened Water Level readings when compared to previous months and other years.

Wahab reiterated the need for people living in low-lying areas and the banks of the Ogun River to put their safety first by moving upland and prevent avoidable loss of lives and properties because the state will still experience more rainfalls in the month and other remaining months.