Time To Prepare For The Rains

The storm that hit parts of Lagos on Monday morning with gale force winds travelling at 120 kilometres per hour is a sign that warns of the change in the global weather pattern as we know it.

The rain storm which started at about 7.00 a.m. that morning roared through parts of the city uprooting trees, roofs of houses, destroying houses, vehicles and electricity poles and masts. It was an experience Lagos would not forget easily, because at the end of the unexpected rain, 15 people were left dead.

Ten of the dead were children, who drowned when their boat capsized at Shibiri Ekunpa area of Ojo. Five other people died in different parts of the city, one, teacher who was killed by mast that fell on him around Obalende area of the city.

The incident is a sad reminder of the Sunday 10 July 2011 floods in which many died in Lagos, and reminds us of how vulnerable we are as the century enters its second decade.

Several local government and local council development areas which include Ikoyi Obalende, Eti Osa, Isolo, Ejigbo, Lagos Island, Surulere, Yaba and a host of others were hit by the unexpected rainstorm.

The ferocity with which the gale sprang up and tore through parts of the city looked as if some elements were angry with our lackadaisical attitude to weather predictions, after all, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency had issued a warning about the possibility of a storm tearing through the city as the seasons begin to change.

The winds were said to have reached 74 miles (120 kilometres) an hour, the threshold for hurricane wind speeds, while those that tore through the city reached up to 40 miles (about 65 kilometres) and about an inch of water fell during the storm which lasted only 15 minutes in some places. God forbid, if it had lasted longer, the losses would have been greater.

Though not on a massive scale, some areas prone to flood were flooded, and as usual, the Governor Fashola administration swung into action with the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, on the roads trying to remove electric poles, trees and sign posts that blocked the roads for most of the morning, and the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, declaring open the Agbowa Relief Camp in Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos for all willing internally displaced persons to seek refuge.

In these times of natural disasters all over the world and the changing pattern of the weather due to global warming, we need to re-order our priorities. We need to watch out for freaky patterns of the weather changes.

Although the Fashola administration did its best within the available means, we must start preparing for the rains, with last July’s incident at the back of our minds. The drain ducks, the Environment Ministry, the waste disposal agency and others must do even more to sensitise the people on the role of residents and government in preventing floods from destroying property and taking lives, although Lagos being a coastal city is prone to flooding whenever it rains.

People who have made it a habit to dispose of their refuses in drainage channels must be sanctioned, and those that refuse to clean their environment must be punished and educated. Even then, government has its own role to play immediately: dredging of all canals in the state.

We cannot afford to wait for the rains before taking action, as Monday’s storm has taught us. We must begin to prepare and be vigilant as it has been predicted that the rains will be very heavy this year.