Lomé and its surroundings : These retention basins that retain nothing !

Hard, hard in these rainy times to live on the edges of the retention basins of Lomé and its surroundings. This is evidenced by all the annoyances that these residents have to deal with every rain.

While the maritime region, especially Lomé and its surroundings have been watered since 4 a.m., it is the retention basins that have refused water, because they are full. According to our colleagues from Gapola, "from Léo 2000 to Adidoadin via Adidogomé Customs, the water reservoirs gave way one by one, creating total desolation in the houses". And continues the colleague, “not only are the houses flooded in Léo 2000, 2 Lions, Adidoadin and recently in Adidogomé Douane, there are also losses of human life and significant material damage. To this is added the impassability of the access streets, the impossibility of access to the houses, the proliferation of mosquitoes, the cessation of economic activities in the surroundings, the general pollution of the environment and, in the worst cases, diseases”.

And the author of the article quotes a local resident who says, “The Léo 2000 area had no problem. But one day we decided to create a pool. That’s how they sacrificed us, because the area was not affected. We damaged the area by setting up this basin. The first five (5) years, the problem was not visible. Due to a lack of maintenance and cleaning to maintain the capacity of the basin, we ended up with a disaster in the area”.

Also, we are talking about the very capacity of these basins to contain water and a job that is approximately done. “When we take the case of the Léo 2000 or Adidogomé Douane basins, these are basins that cannot contain water. It can only be a transit towards an outlet. Particularly at the level of Leo 2000, we unfortunately note that it is only a rough work. The reservoir is poorly sized and poorly maintained. The government is making efforts to fight against the floods, but we realize that those who do the work are only wheeler-dealers,” he explained.

The colleague accuses the "lightness of the work of these works, the lack of outlet or collector and pumping device to drain the water towards the lagoon and the sea" ; which "regularly cause flooding in the neighborhoods sheltering these water reservoirs".

As a possible corrective to these works and to the floods which harm the local populations, it is proposed by more than one, the crew of these basins in difficulty in "pump of great pumping capacity" and the installation of the access roads to these basins and their regular cleaning.

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