Dayo Ayeyemi | Lagos
As part of the efforts to ensure flood management and sustainable drainage networking, agencies of government in Lagos State over the weekend met to strategize on the adaptation of Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) in the state.
Speaking at the stakeholders forum held at the State Secretariat, Ikeja, Permanent Secretary, Office of Drainage Services and Water Resources, Mr. Lekan Shodeinde, an engineer, said it was a matter of necessity that the state has brought up a homogenised drainage master plan comparable to that of roads and transportation.
According to him, all master plans in every sector of the state must be developed simultaneously for a model city plan to be achieved, saying that there was a need for drainage infrastructure master plan to combat the problem of flooding in Lagos.
He said what Lagos normally experiences is flash flooding caused by the torrential rainfalls which in volume is more than what the available drainage system can contain, adding that the flash flood usually subsides within hours.
He urged Lagosians to create retention and storage amenities in their homes for storage of storm water to assist in containing flooding in the State.
He said these storage facilities would serve as reservoir for harvesting storm water at the peak of the rainy season for later domestic use or slow discharge into the drains after rainfall.
Shodeinde, explained that this retention facilities have become essential as Lagos in recent times had been experiencing persistent rainfalls adding that flooding all over the world was rated as the second biggest of all natural disasters.
He stated that God being the master planner, designed it that whenever it rained, 50 per cent of rain water should be absorbed into the ground through deep and shallow percolation, 40 per cent to stay on foliage being trees, grasses and other greens while only 5-10 per cent of storm water is expected to flow into the drains.
