Guardian

AN attempt to construct storm water drainage along some of the badly damaged roads/streets within the Canal Estate, Okota, in Isolo Local Government Council has put the residents of the estate in severe pain and hardship. The intended construction work along Rev. Adegoke/Ashiata Yusuff/Sanusi and the adjoining streets such as Chidi Okafor, Benson Ojukwu Close, Adeshina Close, Oluwole Close and Akinyemi Street has worsened accessibility within the estate that has no other exit route. The residents are entrapped as Lagos awaits the usual torrential downpour that is bound to occur shortly. The estate actually needs storm water drainages but the problem is the timing of the work at the onset of the rainy season when it will prove daunting.

The commencement of the project at the onset of the rainy season (first week of May) in a flood-prone environment is curious. Is the aim really to do a good job or just to award the contract for the sake of it, to satisfy some selfish interests? Did government and the contractor take the season into consideration? Certainly, the project is ill-timed despite its intended benefits. There is no way any reasonable work would be done on the planned drainages until the end of October when the rains would have subsided. Embarking on drainage construction under the rains is wrong headed.

Within the next two months (June/July), the entire country will be in the peak of the rainy season. Lagos and the entire southern states will experience the first rainfall maximum, which is part of the double rainfall maxima characteristic of this part of the country. The second peak will occur in September after the little dry season that occurs in August. It is not known why the contractor decided to embark on the work at this time. The next three months are flood-prone in Lagos.

The Nigerian Meteorological Service (NIMET) has warned citizens to prepare for another round of floods that may wreak havoc in parts of the country. The 2013 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) released by the agency recently warned both the federal and state governments to take proactive steps to stem this year’s flooding that may surpass that of last year. With such official prediction in place, the excavation made by the contractor would be washed away by the impending floods. Why was this construction not implemented since the end of the 2013 floods that ravaged many parts of the metropolis?

Ideally, such drainage work is better done in the dry season. It would have been better if the work had been done in the past six months, November 2012 – April 2013. But since it was not done, the right thing would have been to wait till the end of the rainy season around the end of October when the environment would be dry to allow such drainage construction. But none of these realities were taken into consideration before the contract was awarded and the contractor jumped onto the roads to begin excavation.

Those excavations now constitute danger. Children or even adults and vehicles could plunge into them. They have been filled with storm water and will remain like that till the end of the rainy season except the contractor intends to mechanically drain the water to enable work to continue even under the rains. But that will compound the problem and bring movement in the estate to a halt. The residents of the estate and their businesses would be plunged into more hardship. They are wondering why government chose to awards the contract at such most inauspicious time.

Canal Estate has roads that practically have never received any government attention since the estate came into existence some three decades ago. This lengthy period of no attention has resulted in what could be described as a “developed slum”, given the appalling state of the roads and streets.  The residents have made feeble attempts to make the roads motorable on their own volition to no avail. Only government intervention will solve the problem. The attempt to construct storm water drainage would have been good if the project had been integrated with the road reconstruction.

I cannot understand the engineering know-how that is being demonstrated at Canal Estate. Here are badly dilapidated roads that are ignored by the government. At the same time, we are talking of storm water drainage to be constructed beside impassable roads and streets. The question is which should come first between the roads and the drainage? The ideal thing is to do the roads first and then have the drains constructed to prevent water logging and erosion. The hardship would have been lessened if the excavation was not made and the mud dumped on the road thereby narrowing the road and impeding traffic. Right now, two vehicles cannot pass at the same time from opposite directions.

Living in the estate is one hellish experience because of bad roads. Muddy roads make driving difficult. Vehicles break down or get damaged on the roads. Businesses in the area are in jeopardy. The roads are practically impassable whenever it rains. This has been worsened by the obviously unplanned excavations drainage. There will be no end to this hellish condition from now till October, when this year’s rainy season would ease off.

The deplorable state of roads within the Canal Estate paints negative picture in the effort of the Fashola administration on roads reconstruction in Lagos. There is no doubt that the administration has done well in this aspect. Some hitherto dilapidated roads, particularly the main arterial roads within the metropolis have been given a facelift. But the inner city roads and streets are nothing to write home about. Efforts should be shifted to inner city roads all over the metropolis to make life comfortable for residents.

Canal Estate, arguably, has one of the worst inner city roads on earth! The appalling condition of the roads in the estate is capable of erasing whatever good impression the residents have about the good works of the Lagos State Government on roads.

Prior to the 70s when people began to acquire plots of landed property to build houses, Canal Estate was marshy and completely water logged. There appeared to be no official development plan for the area. No planned access roads and no piped water supply till date. The result is that people acquired water logged plots of land and managed to wade through to build houses after sand filling. Three decades later, the entire Canal Estate plots of land have almost been acquired. State-of-the-art architectural edifices have been built all over the place.

But there are no roads or drainage to make the place livable. Canal Estate and similar unplanned residential areas make me wonder what has happened to town planning. Why do estates spring up without the provision of essential utilities? The Ministry of the Environment and the Isolo Local Government Council should use the opportunity at hand to give Canal Estate a face-lift. The roads should be reconstructed along with the drainage channels to give the estate the status of a mega-city residential area.