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Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Tokunbo Wahab
The Lagos State Government on Thursday said it was set to commence the urban regeneration of Lagos Island and its environs.
It said a conducive environment is very essential and effective for economic growth.
The Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, disclosed this at Ilubirin after a tour around Lagos Island and its environs.
He said urban renewal across Lagos Island is necessary to effectively address the problem of flooding which had posed a serious threat to lives and properties in the area.
The commissioner was accompanied by the Special Adviser on Environment, Olakunle Rotimi-Akodu; Special Adviser Office of Infrastructure, Olufemi Daramola; Permanent Secretary, Office of Infrastructure, Lateef Somide; Permanent Secretary, Office of Drainage Services, Mahamood Adegbite; and some directors from the ministry.
Wahab explained that the project would be carried out jointly by his ministry and the Ministry of Work and Infrastructure.
“We want to have a holistic approach which requires the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources to sign off some alignments because of the planned regeneration of the total infrastructure of Lagos Island,” he said.
He said the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources would reconstruct 13 secondary collectors, and two drainage outfalls and upgrade some drainage channels.
He noted that the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure would construct the roads saying these projects would go on at the same time.
He stressed that the sign-off required a joint agreement with the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure on the drainage level, the alignments, the collector, the outfall, and the depth and width of each of the channels for the project to be beneficial to the community.
He added, “The construction of the roads would raise them higher than how they are now and the tertiary drains that will be constructed to discharge into the collectors and these efforts will end flooding issues on the island.”
Wahab promised that the contractor would commence work immediately and the projects would be delivered in no time across Lagos Island to permanently curb the menace of flooding in the area.
The team also visited Nnamdi Azikwe Road following a public complaint that certain properties were built on drainage channels and the commissioner said the buildings would be marked and served contravention notices and thereafter prosecuted if found guilty.
