The Ogun State government has directed owners of houses built on drainage channels across the State, and marked for demolition to remove them without delay or have them removed by government at a cost payable by them.
The directive was part of measures towards preventing avoidable flooding in urban cities across the State.
The State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Ola Oresanya gave the directive when he led a state government multi-sectoral team on flood mitigation and control to assess the impact of urban flooding in Ikenne local government area of the state.
Oresanya said, if owners of the marked buildings who have been given enough notices and ultimatum wait for the state government to remove them, they will have to pay the state government for using the tax-payers' money to remove such property for them.
He added that they may face other possible penalties, positing that government will prosecute such property owners for contravening the State Environmental Laws.
He therefore directed those concern to do the needful as quickly as possible to avoid sanctions as the state government is interested in them obeying the ultimatum and the Environment Laws which prohibits them from building on flood planes.
Mr Oresanya also used the opportunity to direct house owners in the state to channel their wastes waters properly by constructing and maintaining tertiary drains in front of their houses or show evidence of waste water retention tanks to complement the state government's efforts at constructing and maintaining primary and secondary trunks to avoid sanctions.
"Any house owner that fails to comply with this directive by allowing his or her wastes water to flow on to the roads will be penalized as the state and the local authorities will not watch them drain their waste water directly into the road thereby destroying the road infrastructure "
"We will not fold our hands and see people destroying roads built with tax payers money. If you go round the state, you will see that the state government has invested heavily on road infrastructure in the interest of the public.
The Commissioner announced that in conformity with the new flood realities in Nigeria and globally, the state government will soon upgrade its drainage plans, while efforts are also on gear to expand the drainage network across the State for better flood mitigation and management.
He however advised house owners who may fall into these new alignments with genuine approvals to file for compensation as the state government is determined to see through its new drainage master plan.
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