If Lagos Knows Where It Floods, Why Are We Still Vulnerable?

Flooding has been a part of life in Lagos for years. When it rains, roads vanish under water, cars get stuck, businesses close, and sometimes water even enters people’s homes. This is not a new issue. For over a decade, newspapers have reported the same problems. In 2015, The Guardian wrote about residents asking the…

by

Obaba Ogunele

September 7, 2026

7 minutes

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If Lagos Knows Where It Floods, Why Are We Still Vulnerable

Flooding has been a part of life in Lagos for years. When it rains, roads vanish under water, cars get stuck, businesses close, and sometimes water even enters people’s homes. This is not a new issue. For over a decade, newspapers have reported the same problems. In 2015, The Guardian wrote about residents asking the government to step in. The next year, the newspaper reported that an early morning downpour had flooded parts of Lagos. By 2017, PUNCH was reporting severe flooding in some of the city’s most expensive neighbourhoods. Similar reports appeared again in 2020, 2023 and 2024. So, both citizens and the government know that Lagos is vulnerable to flooding.

In May 2026, the National Emergency Management Agency identified 15 local government areas in Lagos as moderate flood-risk zones. On June 15, Lagos State issued another warning, naming places such as Ikeja, Ikorodu, Ikoyi, Lagos Island, Lekki, Surulere, Agege, Alimosho, and Kosofe as high-risk areas. This means Lagos is not caught off guard each rainy season. The real issue is what happens when knowing about the risk does not lead to action. By late June 2026, floods had hit both the mainland and the island, affecting places like Oshodi, Mushin, Surulere, Gbagada, Ikeja and parts of Lekki. But not all these places flood for the same reason. In Agungi, Ajiran and parts of Ikota, for example, the problem has been linked to development around waterways and drainage channels.

After flooding in the Lekki-Epe axis, Lagos officials inspected drainage systems in nearby communities. At Agungi-Ajiran, they found that blockages were stopping water from flowing to the lagoon. In Ikota, the government said that development and land reclamation had narrowed sections of the river and that some buildings had been built along drainage paths and floodplains. So, the main issue was not just a lack of drainage, but whether water still had enough space to move when it rained. And this was not something the government only noticed in 2026. Back in 2023, Lagos had already started warning owners of buildings along canals and waterways, including in Ikoyi, Obalende, and Awoyaya. Some of these buildings were eventually demolished.

But if you already know where the drainage path is and you can identify a building that should not be there, then ideally, you should not have to wait until that building is completed before stepping in. The concern, therefore, is not just if Lagos responds, but how quickly it responds.

Flooding Is Not Simply an Island Problem.

After the June floods, NEMA and LASEMA visited affected communities like Gbagada and Oworonshoki. There, they pointed to prolonged rainfall and inadequate drainage as factors behind the flooding. So while development around waterways may be part of the problem in places like Ikota, somewhere else the volume of rain may simply overwhelm the available drainage. This means there is no single explanation for the flooding in Lagos. Different communities can be at risk for different reasons.

Waste is also a major contributor to flooding. Following the June 28 flooding, videos circulating from affected areas showed plastic waste, tyres and other debris inside drainage channels and canals. Now, this part is straightforward. When a drainage channel is filled with rubbish, less water can move through it. Residents therefore have a responsibility too. People cannot continuously dump waste into drains and expect those same drains to function properly when heavy rain comes. But there is another side to the issue. Just days before the June flooding, Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, acknowledged that waste evacuation in Lagos had been poor for months. So, it is not enough to simply tell people not to dump waste. The collection system must also work.

Lagos Is Also Fighting Its Geography

There is also the factor of geography, which cannot be ignored. Lagos is a low-lying coastal city surrounded by lagoons, creeks and the Atlantic Ocean. So, when very heavy rainfall coincides with high lagoon or tidal water levels, stormwater can take longer to discharge. Water trying to leave streets and drainage networks can therefore move more slowly into surrounding water bodies. So, flooding in Lagos is often the result of several pressures occurring simultaneously.

But if we already know what some of these problems are, what has Lagos been doing about them? To be fair, quite a bit. There has been dredging, drainage construction, desilting, clearing of waterways and demolition of structures built on drainage alignments. The state is also investing in flood-control infrastructure, such as the Ilubirin pumping station on Lagos Island. After the widespread flooding in June, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu also approved the dredging and maintenance of 28 additional primary drainage channels across the state. And the money going into this is quite significant. An analysis of Lagos State’s budget implementation reports found that about ₦106.6 billion was spent on drainage construction, dredging and rehabilitation between 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. Clearly, Lagos is spending money and carrying out interventions. The harder question is whether those interventions are reducing vulnerability quickly enough.

Who Is Responsible?

Residents have a role to play. You cannot dump waste into a drainage channel and expect that same channel to carry water when the rain comes. Developers also have a responsibility not to build on waterways or drainage paths. But the government has a responsibility to plan, approve, monitor and enforce. If the government already knows where the drainage alignments and waterways are, then how do some of these structures get from foundation to lintel, and then through several floors, before anyone stops them? And where developments require approval, how are those approvals being checked against what we already know about flood risk?

The same question applies to waste management. Public education against indiscriminate dumping is necessary. But waste also has to be collected consistently, while drainage channels need regular maintenance before the rainy season reaches its peak.

So perhaps the real question is not whether Lagos knows where it floods. It is whether we are doing enough to prepare for what we already know is coming. If we know which areas are vulnerable, then the way we build, maintain our drainage and manage waste needs to reflect that. Otherwise, the same flooding will keep returning with the same damage. The goal should not just be to respond when the water comes. It should be to make sure we are better prepared before it does.