“WE WILL REMOVE WRECKS ON LAGOS WATERS BY NEXT YEAR” …Mr Marinho, MD, LASWA
To a lot of people in the maritime sector, the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) is a pain in the neck of some Federal Government agencies. It also, a few weeks back had a running battle with many Lagosians who built their houses near the waterfronts as most of these houses were submerged when some parts of Lagos were taken over by floods. The agency’s Managing Director, Mr Yinka Marinho told our special correspondent that all that is over as it is now enjoying a very cordial relationship with sister federal agencies. He also said that it is the most stubborn of Lagosians and waterway users who break the waterways laws and who do not also know how to swim.
Recently, there was an upsurge of water that took over some parts of Lagos, how was your organization able to handle the crisis?
LASWA normally monitors most of the jetties around Lagos State, and we have what we call Water ‘corp guards’ which usually responds. The up surge or the high level of water is not unconnected with the global situation that we have on our hands. Secondly, you would have noticed that from the month of April to October we witnessed constant rainfall, with the constant rains and lack of sun shine, there is nowhere for the water to go, so the water level naturally has gone higher and that with global effect like I said earlier, I mean there is flooding in Pakistan and China, so we are not the only part of the world that has this problem. If you listen to world news, there is a real crisis on rising water levels; our hope now is that the sun comes to shine for a few days. Global warming is a major part of this problem, water level everywhere is rising, this year for us is worse. We have been having rainfall if my calculation is right constantly from April; we have not had one or two weeks of sunshine
How were you able to manage victims of the up surge?
At the jetty in Ikorodu where we have the Canal, two of our water corp guards saved some people who almost drowned, we have assisted people get back to their homes in Ikorodu especially when it was getting late and the other ferry firms also assisted in moving people back to their homes.
We have been warning people about staying close to the edges of the waters, unfortunately the town planners or whoever planed most of the areas have not considered that fact people are too close to the waters. In some parts of Lagos, we had jetties actually being covered by water, so one could not even see the jetties because the water level was very high. So at those jetties, we tell people to stay well away from the edge of the waters so that they do not fall into the water and the good advocacy from LASWA is making sure that everybody wears their life vest. So we gave been pushing strongly on the issue of life vest because that is the only true way you can really save your life.
Do we foresee a reoccurrence of this sad event; does LASWA have the capacity to handle the flood crisis?
First of all, Lagos has a large vast amount of water, one of the issues that is currently bothering the Authority is the dumping of refuse into the drainage system, blocking water ways and by that I mean even canals because when it is not rainy season half of the canals are filled with all sorts of refuse, when the water now comes, there is nowhere for it to go. If the water ways are not blocked, the water level will not rise, maybe in some cases, it would not have been as bad as it was just because of the blockage of the water ways and in the law of Physics, it says water will surely find its level, if it cannot go forward and it can not go back it will rise. There must be real education on people not blocking water ways, people not blocking canals, even our little gutters in our various communities should not be blocked because all those are part of the drainage system. So once one place is blocked, naturally water flows into the opposite direction.
There is a ban on night ferry operation, is the ban still in force?
Yes it is still very much in force.
How has Lagosians adhere to this ban, has there been anybody arrested and sanctioned?
Yes there have been some around the Badagry axis, but then, the most important about the ban on night travel is for safety reason. Most boats do not have lights and the water ways are not lit, and it is impossible to navigate properly when you do not have access to visibility. Unfortunately, I think the ban is from 6 p m but we are moving to 7 p m because of people trying to get back through the water ways, but the ban truly is for security and safety reasons. Besides, there has been one or two accidents with night travels, I think I had a report about a month ago in the Badagry where about eight passengers lost their lives because they were not even wearing life jackets and this accident happened about 8 O’clock in the evening. I collected that report when we went to a place called Olorun Meta to see a wreck.
Have you arrested anybody since the ban became effective?
No we just send the people back to the jetty.
Without any sanction?
We are not sanctioning any body yet because most jetties are closed by 7 O’clock, so it has been hard to see anyone who has broken the law recently. Since August when I joined the operations, I have not been able to arrest any one
Do you remind boat user of the fact that they haven’t worn their life vest?
Oh yes, that is why we have water guards , we have water guards that dive, swim, and ensure that people wear their life vests which is still a struggle because people still are very stubborn and it is amazing that the most stubborn ones do not even know how to swim, yes we do warn them to wear these and we do enforce the closure of the water ways at that time.
There was a face -off between LASWA and the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) sometime ago over the management of some jetties which were eventually ceded to you. What is the situation with NIWA presently?
Well we are trying to work with NIWA, the jetties conceded to LASWA are being renovated and some have been renovated by the Lagos State Government.
Most of these jetties were non- functional, some have become carcasses, so a lot of renovation works are going on. I know that the one in Oworoshoki is completed, there is one in Ijora and Oyingbo, most of them are under going renovations, some of them are currently being used. We are working with NIWA, we realized what and who is and we also know that NIWA cannot cover the entirety of Lagos water ways and LASWA itself is entrenched in the laws of Lagos state, so we understand our brotherly relationship with NIWA.
Some criminal elements have taken advantage of darkness on our water ways to attack vessels, are you aware of this and what is LASWA doing about this situation?
I am not aware of this, and if what you have is true, then the Marine Police should be contacted, my work is to facilitate transportation on the water ways; be it human, be it cargo, to make that the users of the water ways get to use a clean, healthy and safe water ways .
The water hyacinths are back what are you doing about it?
Presently, we are trying to mobilize some clean up operations; starting from the Epe axis to Ikorodu and then we will extend the clean up to other parts of the water ways.
So there is actually a plan to start clearing it, we are actually trying to mobilize now.
How soon do we expect this to happen?
By the first or second week of November, there should be a systematic clean- up of the waters
The recent warning by the Lagos State Commissioner of Environment to residents who resides on the edges of the waters does not mean anything to Lagosians what could be responsible for this?
Well I will leave you to ponder about that, as an environmentalist, he would have checked some surveys and reports. I am not sure about how to answer because I am not an environmentalist, but in the management of the water ways, if the Ajah axis is known to be low then, that is why I am saying that the clearance of the water ways is essential for the drainage system to work properly. One of our biggest problems which you also know is the dumping of refuse in to water and we are still dumping into the waters and the Governor has been so good, he opened up a canal in Surulere and opened other canals that were blocked for years, but people still keep throwing refuse into these outlets. Like I said, all these waters have a way of channeling back even from the mainland from Ikorodu road in those days the drainage will go via where ‘TREM’ is and head back to the stream near Oworoshoki.But all those areas have been blocked, they are building houses every where. In that situation, you are bound to have the problem of water; if the water cannot go naturally, we will have flooding because the access for water to pass has been blocked. Now in the Lekki area, a lot of sand filling is going on, if you are estimating that if the water level rises over three metres and you are saying that they have not properly sand -filled the place before erecting buildings, is the sand filling level not high enough? Because some parts of this city are close to sea level, so those are issues that government and environmentalists will have to look into.
Do you think you are doing enough on the campaign against dumping of wastes on the water ways?
Well, I am a water ways man, because this issue came when we experienced the up surge in the water level. LASWA is in charge of lagoons, creeks, rivers the Atlantic, jetties and not canals, the environmentalists take charge of the canals. Besides that, the way the town planning was done, some houses are definitely too close to the waters.
Why I talk about blockages is because it does not allow for free flow of water.
What is the way out of this problem of flooding considering the problem of global warming?
It is going to be tough, because we are all part of the world, what we have been trying to do is to become more alert, be more observant as the level rises and try and warn people about the dangers of being too close to the edges of water. It is a big problem, but I think it is something we have to do with systematic planning of all agencies to try and educate people more about the dangers of staying so close to the edges of the water. Ordinarily, there is flood whenever it rains, but yet people still stay there.
So, something about the education level of what to do with our water ways will be necessary.
What about the wrecks on the water ways?
We are looking at the Lagos water ways wrecks, the ones in our waterways have been identified and we are hoping that by next year, we should have cleared a bit of the wrecks in our own waterways. We have identified some in Ikorodu, Epe, near Mile 2.
The Mile 2 jetty looks like it has been abandoned, what is happening to that jetty?
Yes the Mile 2 jetty is a wonderful jetty; it was one of the most functional of all the jetties as at the time it was built. There is going to be work on reviving it and LASWA has started working on reviving it. We are looking at undertaking some renovation work to make it operational, but that will be dependent on other agencies that are supposed to vacate the premises. You will agree with me that the jetty is a strategic jetty and there are plans to make it operational, let me leave at that.
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