Professionals offer voluntary assistance for prevention as flood incidents persist

Concerned about the havoc flood has wreaked in some parts of Nigeria, especially in Lagos State, the nation’s economic hub, built environment professionals have volunteered to assist the government in preventing the frequent flooding incidents that have left many homeless and also washed away farmlands.
Estate surveyors and valuers, under the aegis of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Lagos State branch, are worried that there are frequent devastating flooding incidents in Lagos despite heavy investment in the development of infrastructure and urban renewal in the state, wondering what could have gone wrong.
The institution, however, faults the absence of a maintenance policy in the state. “At the institution, we believe that if, indeed, there was a maintenance policy in place, part of which is to manage and clear the drains and canals, the issue of flooding in most areas of Lagos would be a thing of the past,” Olurogba Orimalade, chairman of the branch, says in a statement.
He notes that in developed and developing nations, every local government area is supposed to have a drainage map. This map would be able to show the drainage channels and the canals. With the map, maintaining the drains becomes a much easier task. We, therefore, call on the state government, as a matter of urgency, to put in place a maintenance policy, which would immediately curtail any further incidence of flooding.
Tayo Odunsi, CEO, Northcourt Real Estate, agrees, saying Lagos, being a coastal region, should have in place bigger drainages and dams such that when water level rises, they would begin to pump water into the Lagoon and the ocean. “That is the kind of thing they have in Amsterdam, Russia and Vienna where are even manual pumps. Lagos should have such facilities”, he advises.
Orimalade adds that in the United Kingdom, before any new development is deemed fit for occupation, the appropriate regulatory agencies would inspect the property to confirm that the development has kept to certain standards, pointing out that such standards include environmental and sanitation standards which are not carried out in Nigeria.
“This gives rise to private developers building all sorts of developments. Basic infrastructure like drains in and around developments, therefore, hardly conform to any standard thereby giving room to scenarios where there is uneven flow within the drainage channels,” he observes.
Continuing, he volunteered that “the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), being a key professional in the built environment, is ready to assist government in providing the necessary advisory towards preventing such flooding in the immediate and near future.”

 

CHUKA UROKO