Developers urged to build flood resilience into Lagos estate planning from the start
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Octo5 Holdings executive director Lauretta Odusolu says property developers in Lagos must move from a 'build first, solve drainage later' approach to treating flood resilience as part of initial estate design.
Mrs Lauretta Odusolu, Group Executive Director of Octo5 Holdings Limited, a real estate and services firm, has urged property developers to make flood resilience a key consideration in estate planning and development. Odusolu spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) while reacting to the impact of recurring flooding on real estate development and property investment in Lagos State.
She said developers should move away from the practice of constructing estates before addressing drainage challenges, explaining that flood management should be integrated into estate design from the outset. According to her, developers should conduct flood risk assessments before acquiring land and consider the flood history, elevation, natural drainage patterns and proximity to waterways of the area.
Estate designs should provide adequate drainage capacity, preserve natural waterways and drainage corridors, and incorporate measures to retain or temporarily store stormwater. "Developers need to move from 'build first, solve drainage later' to treating flood resilience as part of the initial estate design," she said. Odusolu said roads and drainage systems should be designed together to ensure stormwater was safely channelled away from homes and other critical infrastructure.
She also advocated the use of permeable surfaces, landscaped areas, retention ponds and appropriately elevated buildings in flood-prone locations, and stressed the need for developers and estate managers to establish regular drainage inspection, cleaning and desilting programmes, noting that even well-designed drainage systems could fail when poorly maintained.
Odusolu called for stronger government approval requirements to ensure that proposed developments did not increase flood risks for neighbouring communities, adding that government agencies also had important roles in maintaining and clearing public drainage infrastructure outside private estates. She noted that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency had issued forecasts on expected heavy rainfall, and that such information should guide planning and development decisions, including climate resilience considerations such as increasing rainfall intensity and, in coastal Lagos, tidal and sea level related risks.