Barrack flooding: Policemen families pray for govt’s intervention

By Juliana Francis
Family members of policemen living at the Car Wash Barrack, Egbeda/Idimu, Lagos State have implored the state governor, Dr. Babatunde Raji Fashola to come to their aid before their children drown in flooded areas.
According to them, they had made repeatedly supplications to the police hierarchy over their plight in the flooded barrack, but every request appeared to have fallen on deaf ears.
Whenever it becomes cloudy, which is one of the signals that it was likely going to rain, many of them used to pray to whatever gods and God they worship, that the rains should not fall. And if the rains must fall, it should not be a heavy one. They simply dread rainfall.
The reason for their prayers is not far fetch if one bothers to pay a visit to the barrack.
The areas are surrounded by water, filled with mosquitoes and other swimming bacteria. When ever it rains, the water, which no longer has a channel to flow through, seeks alternative avenue, flooding apartments of the policemen and their families.
This has repeatedly damaged furniture. But what actually bothered most of them is the huge fear that any of their kids could fall into the water and drown before anyone realises what is happening.
Those of them who spoke with the journalist, said they were used to flooding problem around their vicinity since Governor Fashola allegedly ordered drainage to be constructed from the Abule-Odu area, to check flooding.
According to them, when the engineers reached Car Wash Barrack area, they abruptly stopped the construction of the drainage, making that particular axis the high point for rushing  water whenever it rains.
One of them said: “Even after the Fashola’s drainage fiasco, we were still not too bothered because if we wait for some hours after the rainfall or days, the flood will drain away. But now, it’s no longer so. The flood is just there! Rather than flow away, it slowly dries up and it could take months for such to happen.  Our children fall sick every time due to mosquitoes bites and we can’t even concentrate at the office. If we’re on the beat and it starts raining, our attention would be diverted. We would be thinking and worrying of the flood entering our homes. We would be thinking of any of our kids falling into the water. ”
One of the women explained that there was immediate and remote cause of the flooding problem in the barrack.
She said: “The remote cause is the Fashola uncompleted drainage which happened in 2008. Perhaps if the workers had completed the drainage, this wouldn’t be happening. But our major problem now is the newly commissioned Police Housing Estate at this Egbeda/Idimu. It was commissioned by President Good luck Jonathan not too long ago. Since the building of those apartments, we’ve known no peace! Every time it rains, we live in fear. The flood now is so bad, that it used to enter our homes. While people are sleeping, we’re busy bailing out water from our homes and many of our husband’s still have to go to office the next day, despite the fact that they didn’t sleep the night before. Let the government come to our rescue.”
They informed the journalist that even while the construction of the fence that separated the Car Wash Barrack from the newly commissioned police housing estate was going on, they had started noticing the flooding problem and had alerted the contractors, but “the contractors said there was nothing they could do. They told us that if we wanted them to be assisting us to pump out the water from our area whenever it rains, then we have to pay some money to them anytime they come to drain it for us. We don’t have the sort of money they were asking for. It was after the construction of the fence that the major flooding problem started.”
Another one said: “We’ve complained severally. There was a time a Deputy Commissioner of Police came to check the flooding problem. We were joyous when we saw him. We thought, finally, there would be a solution to our problem, but alas, he left and till date that we’re speaking with you, we’ve not heard anything from any quarters.”