Lagos Flood: Mother, child sleeps in toilet

The heavy rain experienced in Lagos State for over five days had forced a 50-year-old mother, Mrs Abosede Adeoye, and child to sleep in a toilet.
The five days rain generated flood that took over Abosede’s house.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the house located at Odubanjo, Igando community, a Lagos suburb, near a dumpsite by Oko-filling station bus stop, became the safest home for the woman and child as all her property submerged by water.
NAN gathered that since the rain started, the houses of some families had been taken over by flood in different parts of the state, while other families relocated to other areas for fear for their lives.
The flood took over houses and forced those who couldn’t afford to leave to look for elevated places to sleep.
NAN gathered that the dumpsite at Igando has blocked major drainages and fences, which spread Abosede home within the community, forcing them to be sleeping in toilet.
“I have been in this community for the past eight years with my child. For years now, this is how we’ve been living here and it’s affecting my health, including the health of my child.
“The place is no longer conducive for us, but we can’t even afford another place. Whenever it rains, I and other women used to fight over right of space in the toilet, but most of the women allow me to use the toilet because of my age.
“I am married, but my husband is very old, too old in fact. He left the children and I to hassle for our lives.
“All the property I moved with into this community was destroyed.
“If we go out to work and it starts raining, we start to worry and panic. We know there wouldn’t be a place for us to sleep. It means a night of trouble, cold and mosquitoes.
“When we return home to see our homes flooded, we go to bed hungry. There will be no place to cook. Sometimes, I cook and eat in the toilet,” she said.
The woman said that the community seriously needed government intervention to make them have a sense of belonging.
“We pray that God should touch our government. We badly need their help,” she said.
Aside the flooding, which appeared to be the community’s immediate problem, residents in the area also complained of stench from dumpsite causing sicknesses, while pigs and snakes have become part and parcel of the community.
The area is known as Zone one community under the Igando Estate Phase 3 CDA, which comprises six streets, Odubanjo, Alamu Olaleye, Ovwighoyoma, Kajola, Ogunmer and Otunba Oladokun.
NAN also gathered that more than a thousand buildings and over close to half a million residents are at risk of losing their homes as the rains and floods persist, if urgent step is not taken by the government.
The residents also appealed to Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to look into their plight and assist them in checking the flood.
The Secretary of the CDA, Mr Samuel Ohwerhoye, said: “I have been here for over 22 years. It used to be the best place in town, but today, everything has changed.
“As members of the community, we have repeatedly tried, spending our resource to channel the flood, which has been occurring for years, but nothing appears to be working.
“Once it starts raining, we wouldn’t be able to stay in this community.
“The dumpsite here is also another problem; it pushes water back into the community. We pray Gov. Sanwo-Olu to come and look at our situation and proffer a solution.
“We’ve complained before to previous administrations; engineers will come, look around and then leave. That would be the end. We wouldn’t hear anything from them.”
Chief Abiodun Michael, a community leader, also said that the flood, coupled with fluids from decomposed materials from dumpsite, penetrated boreholes, making water unhealthy.
“I buy bags of sachet water every day; and this is after spending money to build a borehole. It’s painful.
“In order to bath, we had to go around looking for water. I’m asthmatic, once its rains, horrible stench and heat start emitting from the dumpsite, causing crisis for me.
“Our boreholes have been contaminated. Children and adults are plagued by sicknesses. Armed robbers and miscreants have taken over the community,’’ Michael said.
The residents further appealed to Sanwo-Olu to help them in building drainages, grading of streets and to check the dumpsite by spraying it with chemicals not harmful to human beings. (NAN)