The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Lagos Area Office, has pulled down shanties around Iddo waterfront to secure the area for navigation.
The development follows series of petitions and reports of unwholesome activities and presence of suspected pirates hiding in those places to attack residents and passengers.
Lagos Area Manager of NIWA, Sarat Braimah, who led the clearing operation, disclosed that all waterfronts in the city where such habitations are found would be pulled down by the agency.
She said, “We want to change the narrative of engagement on our waterways and the era when people blame NIWA for not being proactive enough is over. Until people respect constituted authority on right of way on Lagos waters, we shall not let them sleep.”
On the emerging presence of water hyacinth, which has made navigation almost impossible along the Ikorodu water channel, Braimah said that personnel had been deployed to clear the menace and provide access to boat operators and movement of vessels to the Ikorodu Inland Port
