The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi has allayed fears that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway may be threatened by floods, saying that the road is not at risk of being inundated.
He made the guarantee last nite when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television. The coastal roadway, he said, was built to withstand flooding.
“The Coastal Highway has not flooded and will never be flooded,” Umahi stated.
Lagos flooding not connected to coastal road
Umahi also refuted the allegation that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is responsible for flooding in some sections of Lagos State, saying that the flooding happened before the project and on houses on both sides of the coastal corridor.
Some of the area’s buildings were created decades ago, before climate change and rising water levels became serious issues, he said.
“When we started the project you find out a lot of the projects we built some had been there 50 years. The ocean is on the right and then the Lagoon is also on the left and by the reason of the Lagos State government rule, you do not channel the affluent water from your premises to the ocean you channel it to the lagoon then the lagoon now channels to the ocean.
‘When these houses were created there was nothing like climate change, so they were built below the flood level,’ he said.
Studies done before construction indicated the highway had to be built higher above the existing flood level, not at the same level as nearby properties, the minister said.
And so when we completed our analysis we found out that we need to raise the coastal highway above the flood level and we must not put it at the level of existing premises and that is what happened. “So, we raised the road above the flood level,” Umahi remarked.
He said the fact that there was water on both sides of the route demonstrated that the road itself was not causing the problem.
“You should ask yourself since the ocean is by the right and the lagoon by the right, both left and right of the premises within the coastal corridor are all flooded and so it has nothing to do with the coastal highway,” he stated.
Umahi said the flooding was due to rising water levels from global warming and climate change. He said properties along the route were built below what is now considered the predicted flood level.
“The climate change, the global warming, necessitated premises we built below at expected flood level at the Coastal Way corridor. Do you agree there is this thing about global warming? Do you believe climate change is occurring? “Will you agree that we have had unusual flooding all over the country?” he asked.
He insisted the flooding was not the fault of the coastal roadway itself.
“The Coastal Highway is a beauty to behold, it has nothing to do with the flooding.” Umahi stated.
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