This, according to them, is because water from the uncompleted and abandoned drainage channels in the area usually results to flooding, leading to loss of lives and property.
The Chairman of Iludun Community Development Association, Olorunhundo Benson, said the community experience difficulty whenever it rains heavily as a result of the overflow of water from the uncompleted drainage channels.
He explained that while the government embarked on the expansion of drainages in other areas, it had abandoned the ones in their area. He said thus when water from other places flowed to the community, there would be no passage for it.
“The flood that we experience in this community whenever it rains is unbearable. It can be up to the waist level. The cause of the flood is the abandoned drainage channels in this community. The government has been constructing and expanding drainages in other areas, but ours here have been abandoned.
“With the construction and expansion of the drainage channels elsewhere, there are higher volumes of water.
“The effect now is that water will flow freely from other places but when it gets here, it becomes stagnant. The stagnant water is gradually making the ground to cave-in and when it rains, it leads to erosion.
“Sometimes it gets so bad that people will be trapped in their houses without being able to come out. Some others usually have their properties destroyed by the flood. We have written to the government to come to our aid, but we have yet to hear from them,” he said.
A resident in the community lamented that parts of the ground that had began to cave-in usually constitute death traps whenever it rains. The resident, who is also the secretary of the CDA, Mr. Samuel Onojole, narrated how a man and his daughter died in 2013 as a result of the flood.
He said, “You see this side (pointing to a caved-in portion of the ground), it is usually a trap whenever it rains. There was a time it rained and the whole ground was covered with water as usual. A man was walking on this road with his daughter and the daughter fell into the pit. The man immediately dived in to rescue his daughter and both of them died in the process.
“The incident angered the community and we protested. The government responded by constructing this small bridge here, but abandoned it half way.”
Another resident, who identified himself simply as Lateef, said that some of the neighbours, who could not withstand the flood had abandoned their houses and fled the area.
Calls put across to the Lagos State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure did not go through and a text message sent to his number was not replied as at the time of this report.
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