Residents lament, seek government action as fish farmer floods street with wastewater

A section of Ebenezer Akintunji Street, off Governor’s Road, Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), is usually flooded, even when the rains have stopped. Initially, residents thought the pool of dirty and foul-smelling water was from stagnant rainwater. But all doubts were erased with weeks of no downpour, yet the street remained flooded.

It was discovered that water oozes out from a particular section of the road every night. As a result, residents decided to investigate the source of the water, which was eventually traced to Moliki Street, an adjacent road to Ebenezer Akintunji Street. On a further probe, they realised a number of houses were involved but the chief culprit were residents of No. 9, Moliki Street.

Mr. Ebenezer Akintunji, who the affected street is named after, said they were highly disturbed as it became very discomforting plying the road, as residents who had no car often had to wade through the dirty stagnant water. According to him, a number of houses were involved, with the occupants pushing their wastewater into the street because they neither dug manhole nor drainage in their houses.

Akintunji disclosed that the house generating the highest volume of wastewater was No. 9, Moliki Street, where the owner of a fishpond would almost on a daily basis empty old water from his pond into the street at night. He said efforts to get the culprits to change had not yielded much after landlords on Ebenezer Akintunji Street wrote a petition to the Egbe/Idimu LCDA and the Lagos State Ministry of Environment.

The Guardian visited House 9 Moliki Street. Though the landlord was not around, but the daughter who spoke, said rudely that they have no reason to explain their action to anybody. She also questioned why The Guardian was interested in the issue, asking the reporter to ask those who laid the complaint for reasons her family empties the wastewater and water from its fishpond to the street.

She thereafter ordered the reporter to leave or she would use the giant dog in their house to chase the reporter away. She said several unprintable things including calling him a jobless reporter looking for who empties water on the street.

When The Guardian contacted the public relations officer of the Ministry of Environment, he said the ministry was not aware of the incident; else it would have taken drastic actions against the culprits. He nonetheless appealed to the aggrieved residents to write another petition to the commissioner with picture evidence and action would be taken as nobody can be above the law.

Also, within the same neighbourhood, Awosika Street residents are pleading with the state government to call to order residents who are in the habit of pumping wastewater from their houses into the street, alleging that culprits do not have septic tanks, manholes and drainages in their houses.