Former Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in Lagos, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has raised concerns over the Ilubirin construction project, warning it could obstruct water flow from the city in ways similar to Eko Atlantic.
In an interview with RadioNow’s George Onuorah, Rhodes-Vivour criticised Lagos developments for often catering to wealthy interests without considering the impact on poorer residents.
He said, “the Ilubirin construction as we come in between water getting out of the city, we’ve said this several, it’s just the way Eko Atlantic has affected, Eko Atlantic development has affected water and flooding that is going on in Ecuador and those entire axis because the water must go somewhere. So this is not me saying that developments cannot happen. It’s me saying if you’re going to do a development, you must ensure that that development does not encumber or get in the way of drainage moving and flow of water and getting water out of communities. The situation where it’s almost as the developments that have been happening in Vegas are mainly for the rich and upwardly mobile and to hell with the effects and consequences on the poor or people that don’t have as much. Now that sort of seems to be the narrative. We look at the amount of flooding that’s affecting all those indigenous communities along with Eko Atlantic also that have been dealing with floods, things like that. A number of them have been affected, including that have been affected with floods based on the sand filling because the water is displaced. So there must be a holistic plan that protects people that are already living in the flood, protects their interests while allowing for development to happen.”
Mr. Rhodes-Vivour expressed support for the Lagos State government’s plan to build a Mega pumping station equipped with three turbines to improve water management.
“You start creating those kind of pumping systems, then you also have to start covering our gutters. That has to go hand in hand. We have to start covering our gutters so that whatever pump we are using will not be having to deal with waste packs, plastic packs, styrofoam packs, because all of these things will eventually spoil the mechanics that you are bringing to solve this problem, the machines and things like that.So yes, definitely. And there must also be a process by which the water is cleaned to an extent so that we’re not just dumping. We have to go get away from this process of just dumping whether it’s waste, focal matter that’s being dumped into our lagoons or polluted pollution, waste, waste leftovers being dumped into our waterways.We need to ensure that as much as possible, clean water is going to our waterways because then we’re not having a conversation about the blue economy, we’re talking about fishing, aquaculture, which is significant and huge and is a very big opportunity for Lagosians.”
He emphasized the importance of infrastructure that ensures drainage systems function effectively without blocking natural water paths.
“Right, Lagos state has a very deep, big challenge. What Lagos is sinking, right? Lagos is one of the sinking cities in the world and Lagos is surrounded by so much water. There’s massive erosion that is coming and that’s one advantage of Eko Atlantic, right? It’s building a seawall, building a sea barrier, so as much as I might say yes there’s a situation of flooding, I also have to give them credit for the fact that they have given us a defense against our landmass that is being taken by the ocean on a daily basis.That also has to extend to other parts of Lagos and not just with protection for the rich, right? We have that peculiar problem, also climate change, rains, increased level of rainfall and all of that, so we need innovation related to getting water out of our land, out of our landmass. We need innovation, so definitely anything that is mechanized that is going to help will go a long way.”
Leave feedback about this
You must be logged in to post a comment.