Rains are from God, floods are from Governments

The Rains in Lagos have really started and as I type it's still raining. In Lagos this is bad news. Rains in Lagos, even the slight drizzle bring panic, not the usual panic to bring the washing in but the panic that you may lose your car, house and sadly even a kid to the floods that follow the rain. Lagos is after all surrounded by water, it's the land of "aquatic splendor", the land of regattas and bridges, but no other city in Lagos is so shut down when it rains than lagos. The fact is what we call Lagos i.e. Marina and the Mainland were simply small islands of planned developments surrounded by concrete unplanned slums. These was never any real planned water management system, not drinking water but waste water management. The open sewers or in Nigerian parlance gutters are simply holes dug in front of houses, they are not connected to channel rain water away from the concrete slums to the nearby lagoons and oceans. The town planning laws are also not just obeyed, they don't exist. In Lekki which is probably the most expensive peninsula in world, it's not unusual to see a school, next to a market, next to a factory next to a mass housing estate, next to a bus park next to a bulk iron rod trader, next to a brothel next to a bank etc. This mix of residential and industrial developments creates waste management issues and hampers planning. I mean on the monthly sanitation days who will clean the area of the school that is beside the housing estate that is beside the bank that is beside the brothel? In summary, Lagos is a maze, a maze of houses, and streets with no plan. When it rains, the water cannot flow in a planned manner, it simply accumulates and then percolates down via gravity. This is dangerous and unhealthy. This means the sewage, fecal and otherwise mix with the rain water are then carried into wells,streets and houses. It's a miracle there is no break out of cholera. The rains in lagos are not new, they are as seasonal, so the question is what have we done about it? The answer is not much. The AC government has governed Lagos since 1999, surly that is enough time to solve the perennial flooding in the mega city. This is a government that earns excess of N22b a month! Controls the House of Assembly and Councils in all 21 LGAs. The response of the state government has been to clear gutters every year in anticipation of the rains. That has not worked. The rains will come, we know that, what we need are drains, connected, covered storm drains to channel that excess water to the lagoons and oceans. open sewers aka gutters won't cut it anymore. We also need strict enforcement of zoning and planning laws to prevent houses being built on the natural flow of rain and flood waters. A cursory look in any gutter revels purewater nylon sachets and empty water bottles, all non biodegradable . the state should use it's tax collected from the pure water and polyethene bag users and manufacturers and fund the creation of a recycling programme. The state must start to discourage use of no degradable plastics if necessary ban them. The state should set up it's own recycle and collection regulations and encourage the private sector to create a system to collect waste plastic bottles, and nylon sachets etc . This greates lots of green jobs especially for the very poor. In India, the recycle business is big and helps to give the extreme poor something to earn daily. It's not Impossible to stop flooding in Lagos, the AC Govt stopped the Atlantic ocean flooding the Victoria Island, and I do not see flooding on Bourdillon Avenue when it rains, this shows it's an issue of priorities. The state has to ensure it solves the flooding problem, it owes that responsibility to the tax payers. It's our problem, we will fix it Kalu A. Aja