Complete abandoned projects, Lagos tells World Bank

The Lagos State Government yesterday appealed to the World Bank to urgently complete all abandoned drainage projects embarked upon in the state.
The government expressed the concern, saying the abandoned canals kill people whenever it rains in the state. Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, made the appeal while monitoring during the monthly sanitation exercise, yesterday.
Bello said that uncompleted drainage projects especially the Owoseni canal, embarked upon by the World Bank, is impeding the state government’s effort in abating flood in Ikare-Ikate Local Council Development Area.
Reacting to the allegation of non-performance of the council chairman, Hakeem Bamgbola, raised by the residents of the council, Bello absolved the council boss from blame on the non maintenance and dredging of the canals, adding that the construction of the entire drainage was shared between the state government and the World Bank.
He SAID: “The channelization of flood in the area would have been completed if the World Bank had not abandoned the drainage project it was handling in the area.
“This is the basic problem in that area. This is impeding our construction because there isn’t any way we can progress in our construction if the bank doesn’t finish its project.
And the reason for this was that our construction must link the abandoned canal for the community to have easy flow of waste water.
“In the last four years, the state government in order to avoid flooding in the area, demolished some structures in other to expand the drainage channels in the council” the commissioner explained.