Residents protest severance of Game Village from sewage treatment plant

Residents of Games Village, Eric Moore, Lagos on Monday protested about the health implications of severing the housing estate from the sewage treatment plant, the site over which construction of a new estate is ongoing.

The sewage treatment plant, which was 2013 upgraded around by the state government, served about 5000 residents in the village as well as those of Surulere community.

The residents, who carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “Lagos Environment must seal the site, “No retreat, no surrender,” among others, denouncing the act, said it was wrong for anybody to have sold the land where the sewage plant belonging to the Game Village was sited, despite the fact that the case is pending before a court in the state, wondering why anybody would want to leave the whole village without a sewage treatment plant.

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The aggrieved people, while insisting that the sewage plant treatment plant belonged to the Game Village, lamented that right now all the pipes carrying the waste from the village had been blocked, raising the fears of an outbreak of epidemics in the area.

They said this was happening despite the fact that the standard that operated all over the world is that a village of such magnitude with high and low rise buildings operated on sewage treatment plant and not soakaways.

Speaking with newsmen, Hon. Moshood Adegoke Salvador Salvador, who owns property in the estate, said the community was protesting the construction work taking place at the sewage treatment plant.

According to Salvador, who is a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), the community could not allow any construction on the sewage treatment plant because of the health implication, noting that it was already having negative effects on residents.

Salvador, who confirmed that the residents took the new owners of the property to court in respect of the sewage treatment plant, said right now the people in the village sought alternative ways of disposing of excreta, but with grave health implications.

He said residents who resorted to self-help by digging soak away and employing other devices were not able to sustain it because there was space for it in the estate, pointing out that some of his tenants who occupied the Salvador Towers left because of failing health due to the sewage blockage.

He said: “The federal government directed in 2012 that the sewage treatment system servicing about 5,000 people, should be reactivated by Dock management to serve the community.

“Lagos State came in 2013 to collaborate with the community to expand the plant to serve the whole Surulere Local Government because it was designed for expansion. Mind you, the master plan of Surulere only reserves the land for sewage treatment of the community and nothing else,” Salvador recalled.

“The whole community is saying no to this development because they cannot resort to digging soak away where there is no land for such. Government has sold all houses in the Games Village, therefore, they cannot sell our treatment plant,” he said.

The chairman of the Community Development Association, Mr Johnson Oguns, described the situation residents of the Game Village had found themselves as worrisome, saying that the whole estate had become a shadow of itself in view of the severance from the sewage.

“You cannot sell the houses to us, and sell the toilets to other persons. We are worried that people have been falling sick due to the unhygienic situation in the estate.

“The matter has been in court and I expected that we should maintain the status quo, pending the determination of the case. To our surprise they have started building houses in the sewage treatment plant premises,” he said.

Newsmen met the sewage treatment plant understand lock and keys but saw that some people were working within as policemen were equally seen around keeping vigil in the area.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Bode Thomas Police Division, who later came around, enjoined the residents to ensure that they channel their grievances through the court of law and not embark on a protest that would degenerate and become uncontrollable, saying the police were prepared to act within the ambit of law of the land.