Our children swim to school with extra clothes daily
By Amidu Arije
A frail-looking old man, Mr. Ayinde Okelola, who seems to be in his late 80’s lay outside his compound, looking disturbed with the persistent overflow of the sea that has continuously overtaken his house and left them in disarray. When the reporter approached him, he could not notice the presence of the reporter’s presence. when he eventually came out of his reverie, the old man’s first utterance was, ‘hmm, this water will soon come again’.
As our correspondent asked him what he meant, he said: “It has become a routine in the Ilaje community for almost a month now that every evening, from 6pm, the sea would overflow its banks and come straight into our houses and stay till 10am the following day.”
He said they had lost everything to the consistence overflow of the sea to the community. He said he was a brick moulder that he moulds bricks behind his backyard but this he said couldn’t do again as a result of the water overflow.
Stating reason for the overflow of water into the houses within the community, the aged man said it was due too the dredge of the river by the government some years back and that after the dredging was made, they refuse to block it and or fence the area to ensure that the sea water does not over flow into the house.
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His words: “Life has not been the same for us in this community, as you can see for yourself, the water comes and goes every six hours. I built this house here in 1975 and since then, we didn’t usually experience this kind of thing we are experiencing now.
“I used to mould blocks here and sell to the people after my retirement from civil service, but my son, this is not possible again for me.
“This sea overflow is partly caused by the dredging the government did here. When they came, they destroyed all the machines that I used for making blocks, and they went away without doing anything for us.
“All these areas you see are very deep and no one can go there. We don’t allow our children to go there because it can consume them.
“The reason for having the deep pits is as a result of the dredging they did here and we have told them to do something about it yet up till this moment, nothing has been done.”
He said property worth millions of naira had been destroyed by the water since it started coming and going. To them in the community, the sea water has turned their experience to sorrow, grief and death.
Also from Bariga, Oworonsoki axis where our correspondent visited, the devastating effect of the overflown sea could be seen visibly, such that a visitor to those communities need not been told that flood has taken large part of their lives.
A motorcyclist, Mathew Olakunle, who spoke with our correspondent, disclosed that the overflow of the river cum floods, for lack of proper drainage in the community has continued to give the people nightmare, as it destroyed their properties and they could not go anywhere whenever it happened.
“What you see here is just a little thing. If you had come when the rain fell, you would have been able to move an inch from the Oworonsoki axis through which you came in. We have been having this type of thing before but this year’s experience is very bad and unprecedented. We just hope that the government would come to our aid and ravage the situation,” he said.
As if those areas where flood and water overflow had been disturbing them is not enough, on getting to Odunsi Street, to access interior parts of the Ilaje community, the streets had already been overtaken by the flood and sea water.
We managed to get to Ayedun Street, Bamiji Lawan Street and Adewale Adenaya Crescent and noted that the experience is worse in the area, as residents were seen spreading clothes on rails and wires from the effect of the flood and sea overflow that affected the communities.
A woman, Mrs. Yetunde Adekunle, who spoke with our correspondent , described the experience for the community as horrible.
“We have not been having it easy here. The sea overflow is one big problem; another challenge is the flood that keeps disturbing us here. Life is really tough for us here.
“Even this government primary school you see here is always flooded and students have to be sitting on desks before they can write in the classes.
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“Some of us don’t bother sending our children to school once the water starts coming because we can’t risk our children’s lives. The government should quickly do something to salvage the situation,” she said.
“When they eventually go to school, they have to go with two clothes and sandals so that they will be able to use one to swim through to school and change their wears when they get to school because if not they can’t do anything,” she added.
On Ayedun Street, as at 6pm when our correspondent got there, the sea water had already taken over the street. A man, who simply identified himself as Rotimi, spoke with our correspondent. He said the coming of the water into the community was really disheartening because so many things had been damaged as a result of this.
He complained that the salty nature of the water had eaten up their legs and hands, adding that many people have been falling ill as a result.
“Apart from the damages it does to our houses and property, it also affects our health as well because all our legs are now chopped off as a result. It comes every year and once it starts like this, it may last up to two to three months that it will keep. As you see it now, it is just coming into the community; it will soon over flow this area; where we are standing now will soon be flooded,” he lamented.
Not quite long after the dialogue with him, the water took over the entire road, making the road inaccessible to vehicles.
