The Lagos floods

FOR many residents of Lagos, the past few weeks have been an ordeal. Homes have been inundated, businesses temporarily shut, vehicles stranded, children ferried to school by boats, and countless families forced to wade through floodwaters simply to go about their daily lives. Communities such as Lekki, Awoyaya, Bogije, Lakowe, Agungi, Amuwo-Odofin, Yaba, Ikoyi and several other parts of the metropolis have once again experienced the now familiar disruption that accompanies heavy rainfall in Nigeria’s economic capital. Recent reports also indicate that businesses were forced to close, transport networks were disrupted, and the government has ordered additional dredging and drainage interventions following the flooding. Unfortunately, there is little about this scene that is new.

Every rainy season, Lagos braces for flooding. Every rainy season, residents count their losses. Every rainy season, government agencies explain the causes and promise improvements. Then the rains return, and the cycle is repeated. This cycle cannot become the accepted normal. That said, fairness requires acknowledging an important reality: flooding in Lagos is not simply evidence of governmental failure. It is the product of geography, climate, demography, urbanisation and human behaviour interacting simultaneously. Lagos occupies low-lying coastal terrain bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and an extensive lagoon system. During periods of intense rainfall and high lagoon or tidal levels, stormwater naturally drains more slowly. Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme rainfall events, while rising sea levels further complicate drainage in coastal cities. Similar challenges are confronting other West African coastal cities, including Accra in Ghana, where recent floods have also caused deaths and extensive destruction.

Recognising these realities, however, should never become an excuse for resignation. Natural hazards become disasters largely because societies fail to prepare adequately for them. The Lagos State government deserves credit for maintaining one of the country’s more active environmental ministries. It has continued drainage maintenance, issued advance flood warnings, removed illegal structures from drainage setbacks, approved dredging of additional drainage channels, and commenced longer-term flood-control projects. These are positive steps that should continue. But the scale of the challenge now demands even bolder thinking. Flood management must shift decisively from emergency response to resilience building.

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The objective is to build a city that can absorb heavy rainfall without paralysing daily life. That requires stricter enforcement against structures obstructing natural waterways and drainage corridors. Buildings that block the natural movement of water ultimately endanger entire communities. Difficult as such enforcement may be, allowing these obstructions to remain only guarantees greater future losses. It also requires a fundamental rethinking of urban growth. Lagos continues to attract hundreds of thousands of new residents every year, many settling in flood-prone areas because that is where affordable housing exists. As population pressure intensifies, impermeable concrete increasingly replaces natural land surfaces, leaving rainwater with fewer places to infiltrate the ground and greater volumes flowing rapidly into already overwhelmed drainage systems. Urban planning must therefore become part of flood policy. Government should actively discourage new residential developments in highly vulnerable floodplains while creating attractive alternatives elsewhere. This is where neighbouring South-West states have an important role. If efficient regional rail networks continue to expand, residents should increasingly be able to live in Ogun, Oyo, Osun or other nearby states while commuting conveniently into Lagos. Such regional integration would reduce pressure on Lagos while stimulating balanced economic development across the South-West.

Similarly, the government should accelerate the development of higher-elevation growth corridors such as parts of Badagry, while ensuring that new communities are designed as genuinely climate-resilient smart cities rather than simply expanding today’s vulnerabilities into tomorrow’s suburbs. The city must also rethink how stormwater reaches the lagoon. As rainfall intensity increases, drainage infrastructure designed decades ago may no longer possess sufficient capacity. Continuous expansion, modernisation and engineering redesign of drainage channels will become unavoidable if Lagos is to remain functional as climate patterns evolve. Equally important is the role of citizens. No drainage system can function effectively if it serves as a refuse dump. Plastic waste, construction debris and indiscriminate refuse disposal continue to obstruct channels across the city, worsening flooding during every major rainfall. Flood resilience is therefore not solely a government responsibility but an all-of-society responsibility involving households, businesses, developers, communities and public institutions alike.

Lagos cannot stop rainfall. Neither can it change its geography. But it can become significantly more resilient. The annual expectation that heavy rainfall will inevitably bring widespread paralysis should no longer be acceptable. As climate risks intensify, resilience—not reaction—must become the organising principle of urban governance. The recent floods should therefore be seen not simply as another unfortunate episode, but as another warning. Nature has spoken once again. The question is whether society will finally respond with the urgency that the future demands.