Just after daybreak on a damp morning in May, Enomfon Okure stepped out of her condominium on Braimoh-Igbo Street in Itafaji, Lagos Island, making ready for one more workday in close by Ikoyi.
Before taking a couple of steps, she instinctively coated her nostril.
The stench had become a part of her mornings since January 2025, when she moved into the neighbourhood along with her household.
Beside the street, black wastewater flowed slowly by an open drainage channel. At intervals, extra rest room waste gushed from pipes protruding from close by buildings and emptied instantly into the drain.
Flies hovered over the murky water as pedestrians squeezed alongside the slender walkway, making an attempt to keep away from contact with it.
For Mrs Okure, a nurse and mom of 4, the scene has become an inescapable a part of each day life.
“I am struggling to survive here,” she instructed PREMIUM TIMES.
“My husband rented this place because it is close to my office in Ikoyi. But when I arrived, I discovered that almost all the gutters in the area receive wastewater from houses. Some of them even carry human waste.”
Her best concern, she mentioned, was the security of her youngsters.
“I don’t allow them to play outside because if they fall into the gutter, it will be dangerous,” she mentioned.
Eventually, Mrs Okure mentioned the state of affairs grew to become insufferable.
“I discussed it with my husband and decided to send the children back to Akwa Ibom to stay with relatives,” she mentioned. “This environment is a gateway to diseases.”
Over a number of weeks, PREMIUM TIMES visited Braimoh-Igbo Street, Obe Street, Alli Street, Massey Street, Kakawa Street, Okepopo Street, Isale Gangan Street, Adeniji Adele, Tinubu Square and different components of Lagos Island.
Across residential and business areas, this newspaper noticed pipes from buildings discharging wastewater and bathroom water instantly into public drainage channels.
Beyond residential neighbourhoods
The downside extends past residential areas.
At Tinubu Square, considered one of Lagos Island’s busiest business centres, merchants instructed PREMIUM TIMES that wastewater and sewage from public bathrooms and business buildings circulation into the drainage community serving the realm.
David Nonso, who sells clothes supplies there, mentioned merchants had endured the foul scent for years.
“All the toilets in this market are connected to the drainage,” he mentioned.
“When people flush, everything goes into the gutters. The smell can be terrible, especially when it rains or when the weather is very hot.”
PREMIUM TIMES noticed wastewater and sewage flowing by open drains beside rows of retailers as merchants and customers moved by the business district.
Mr Nonso attributed the issue partly to the dense growth on Lagos Island, where buildings are packed intently collectively.
“Their houses are too close to each other,” he mentioned. “Nobody is even giving space for somebody to do soakaway.”
Ibrahim Abubakar, a tailor within the space, additionally mentioned wastewater usually flows by the drains in entrance of the market.
Another dealer, Emeka Uzor, who sells electrical items, expressed concern concerning the well being implications for merchants, clients and residents who come into contact with the polluted surroundings.
“The drainage was meant to carry rainwater, but now it carries everything,” Mr Nonso mentioned. “People have become used to it because it has been happening for years.”
He mentioned a illness outbreak in such a crowded business space may have an effect on way over the merchants who work there.
“When disease breaks out, it affects everybody,” he mentioned. “Even our children don’t come there because it is very bad. If somebody falls into that gutter, that one is terrible.”
Buildings over drains
PREMIUM TIMES additionally discovered one other follow that might complicate efforts to examine and preserve public drains.
In a number of areas, sections of drainage channels disappeared beneath buildings earlier than re-emerging additional down the road.
On components of Braimoh-Igbo Street, Obe Street and adjoining roads, the newspaper noticed buildings sitting over sections of drainage channels, leaving components of the drains inaccessible from the road.
Residents alleged that some landlords had prolonged their buildings over current drainage alignments and had been utilizing the hid sections to channel wastewater and sewage from their properties.
PREMIUM TIMES couldn’t independently decide what was being discharged into the sections hid beneath the buildings. However, darkish, foul-smelling wastewater was noticed rising from some drains additional downstream.
On 17 June, this newspaper contacted the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) by the Freedom of Information (FOI) to hunt clarification on the approval and regulation of constructing buildings that permit residents to channel rest room pipes instantly into public drainage methods. The newspaper additionally sought the company’s response to the widespread follow of developing buildings and outlets on drainage channels.
Despite repeated visits to the company’s workplace in an try to acquire solutions, LASBCA didn’t reply to the enquiries.
For residents, nevertheless, the results are seen on the streets. Wastewater continues to circulation by open drains round houses and companies, even where its exact supply is hidden beneath concrete.
What the legislation says
The practices documented by PREMIUM TIMES are prohibited below Lagos State’s environmental rules.
The Lagos State Environmental Management and Protection Law, 2017, places duties on property homeowners and occupiers to keep up their premises and prohibits actions that might hinder drainage infrastructure or pollute the surroundings.
Under Section 112 of the legislation, homeowners and occupiers are required to maintain their premises clear, together with surrounding gutters and drains.
Section 118(1)(a) prohibits the development of buildings on drainage alignments, sewers, footpaths and required street setbacks.
The provision is related to PREMIUM TIMES’ findings on components of Lagos Island, where sections of drains disappeared beneath buildings earlier than re-emerging additional down the streets.
The legislation additionally addresses the discharge of untreated waste.
Section 185 offers that an individual should not discharge untreated waste or chemical substances into the surroundings besides in accordance with relevant rules or federal legislation.
For sure institutions, together with housing estates, resorts and business services, Section 188(1) prohibits the discharge of commerce and industrial effluent into public drains or the pure surroundings and not using a allow from the related company.
Section 115(4) additionally prohibits the indiscriminate dumping of home, industrial or business waste alongside roads, channels and different specified areas.
Beyond the environmental legislation, Lagos constructing rules require builders to supply applicable methods for disposing of wastewater from buildings. These embrace public or non-public sewers, septic tanks with applicable secondary therapy, wastewater therapy methods or cesspools.
Yet PREMIUM TIMES noticed pipes from residential and business buildings discharging wastewater instantly into public drains in a number of components of Lagos Island.
Enforcement has not stopped the follow
The state has beforehand taken motion towards properties accused of violating wastewater and environmental rules.
The Lagos State Wastewater Management Office (LSWMO) sealed a property in Okota after discovering that uncooked sewage from its septic tank was being discharged right into a public drainage system.
Three months later, enforcement officers shut a residential property on Apongbon Street on Lagos Island for allegedly releasing faecal matter into public drains.
In September 2025, LSWMO sealed EMCEL Court Phase I and Well Stock Apartments in Ikota GRA, Eti-Osa, accusing the services of discharging untreated wastewater into public drains and the encircling surroundings.
The company has carried out comparable enforcement in different components of Lagos. In August 2025, it sealed residential properties in Abule Egba and Lekki, Eti-Osa, after accusing occupants of intentionally pumping uncooked sewage into public drains.
In April, whereas saying the return of month-to-month environmental sanitation, the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, reminded residents to maintain drainage channels round their properties clear and eliminate waste correctly, warning that violators could be sanctioned.
Despite these enforcement actions and warnings, PREMIUM TIMES discovered wastewater nonetheless flowing by public drains in a number of communities on Lagos Island.
Billions spent on drainage infrastructure
The situations documented by PREMIUM TIMES are occurring regardless of substantial public funding in Lagos’ drainage infrastructure.
According to the Lagos State authorities’s 2024 Citizens’ Accountability Report, the Office of Drainage Services and Water Resources spent about N45.53 billion through the 12 months, representing 99 per cent of its whole funds of N46.06 billion.
The expenditure coated a number of drainage-related tasks, together with development, dredging and rehabilitation.
The state reported spending N13.65 billion on drainage development and dredging throughout Lagos and N11.48 billion on the rehabilitation of drainage methods throughout native authorities areas. Another N9.36 billion was recorded for dredging and development, whereas N2.30 billion went in the direction of excellent liabilities on drainage development.
These expenditures are primarily associated to drainage and flood administration and shouldn’t be confused with spending on sewage or wastewater therapy, which is dealt with individually by the Lagos State Wastewater Management Office.
They are however related to a different discovering of this investigation: public drains in a number of the communities visited had been getting used for functions for which they weren’t designed, whereas sections of drainage channels had additionally been constructed over or in any other case made troublesome to entry.
The Lagos State authorities itself describes sustaining drainage rights-of-way, cleansing drains and dredging canals as vital components of its flood-control efforts.
Yet on components of Lagos Island visited by PREMIUM TIMES, drains supposed to convey stormwater had been additionally carrying family wastewater and refuse.
The state’s funds information present that drainage expenditure is unfold throughout a number of programmes and funds strains, making it deceptive to make use of a single administrative allocation as the federal government’s whole spending on drainage.
Lagos State authorities muted
The questions had been put to the Lagos State authorities in writing. Getting solutions, nevertheless, proved tougher.
On 17 June, PREMIUM TIMES submitted an FOI request to Mr Wahab, asking what the ministry knew about unlawful sewage discharges, the way it monitored properties linked to public drains and what motion it had taken towards offenders.
The request didn’t finish there.
On 30 July and once more on 4 August, PREMIUM TIMES returned to the commissioner’s workplace to comply with up and provides the ministry one other alternative to answer the findings of the investigation.
During the second go to, Mr Wahab’s secretary sat in his workplace, went by his information after which delivered the commissioner’s place earlier than heading downstairs to the automotive park.
“The commissioner says he is not interested,” he mentioned.
That left unanswered questions on whether or not the ministry had recognized properties discharging sewage into public drains, how widespread the follow was and whether or not anybody had been sanctioned.
PREMIUM TIMES additionally tried to determine whether or not the situations documented on Lagos Island had been mirrored within the well being information of kids dwelling within the space.
In June, the newspaper visited Massey Children Hospital on Lagos Island to request information on youngsters handled for cholera, typhoid fever, acute diarrhoea, dysentery and different waterborne illnesses.
The hospital’s administrative division mentioned approval from the Lagos State Health Service Commission was required. A letter requesting the knowledge was submitted and acquired on 2 July.
There was no response regardless of follow-up efforts.
A separate FOI request was despatched to the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, on 17 June, searching for data on the well being implications of poor sanitation and sewage discharge.
When PREMIUM TIMES returned to the related workplaces on 30 July and 4 August, the questions had been nonetheless unanswered.
However, the open sewage state of affairs in Lagos Island is believed to have contributed to the excessive cholera circumstances recorded within the space. Each 12 months, as rainfall intensifies, floodwaters combine with sewage and refuse from clogged drains, spreading illnesses like cholera.
In 2024, Lagos accounted for about half of the entire cholera circumstances recorded in Nigeria, with many of those circumstances reported in Lagos Island.
The Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) was additionally requested to clarify what it knew about the issue. An FOI request was submitted to the company on 17 June, adopted by visits and different efforts to acquire a response.
None got here.
The Lagos State Wastewater Management Office (LSWMO), nevertheless, responded after PREMIUM TIMES despatched questions by electronic mail. The company’s response got here on 5 August.
According to A. Abiola, who responded on behalf of the company’s General Manager, Adefemi Afolabi, untreated wastewater, uncooked sewage and faecal sludge shouldn’t be flowing into public stormwater drains or gutters. Such drains, he defined, are supposed to carry rainwater, not sewage.
He famous that property homeowners are anticipated to supply correct sanitation methods, together with septic tanks and soakaways or wastewater therapy vegetation, relying on the sort and dimension of their buildings.
LSWMO mentioned it checks compliance by inspections, tracing drainage routes, testing wastewater samples and responding to complaints from residents and whistleblowers.
When unlawful discharges are discovered, the company mentioned it might situation abatement notices and, where property homeowners fail to conform, disconnect unlawful pipes, seal premises, impose fines or prosecute offenders.
The company mentioned it had issued tons of of abatement notices throughout Lagos and sealed scores of residential and business properties over the previous two years. Some of the enforcement actions, it mentioned, concerned properties on Lagos Island.
But LSWMO additionally provided a proof for why the follow has proved troublesome to remove.
Lagos Island, it mentioned, is densely constructed, with small plots, ageing infrastructure and a excessive groundwater desk. Those situations could make it troublesome for homeowners of older buildings to put in or improve standard sanitation methods. Poorly maintained soakaways also can overflow in areas where the water desk is shallow.
Some landlords reply by diverting greywater into gutters, the company mentioned, however that doesn’t make the follow lawful.
Where a constructing lacks a correct sewage-disposal system, LSWMO mentioned the proprietor is answerable for placing one in place. The company mentioned it might present technical steering, whereas accredited sewage dislodgers can quickly take away waste through the work.
It additionally mentioned it was decentralised wastewater and faecal sludge therapy methods for densely populated areas where standard sewer networks could be troublesome or costly to construct.
The company’s response additionally make clear the buildings that PREMIUM TIMES discovered sitting over sections of drainage channels.
LSWMO mentioned the elimination of bodily encroachments falls below different city planning companies. But where such buildings are used to cover unlawful wastewater connections, the wastewater workplace mentioned it might intervene and refer the matter to the suitable authorities.
Health dangers of unsafe wastewater disposal
Health and environmental consultants interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES warned that the situations documented on Lagos Island may expose residents to illness, significantly where wastewater accommodates faecal matter or contaminates water and meals.
Ernest Onyebuchi Nwoke, a Senior Lecturer within the Department of Physiology at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, mentioned untreated sewage in open drains will increase the chance of illnesses related to poor sanitation.
He recognized cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, hepatitis A and different diarrhoeal diseases as specific considerations.
Children, he mentioned, might be particularly susceptible as a result of they’re extra more likely to come into contact with contaminated surfaces whereas taking part in.
“Children are especially vulnerable because they frequently come into contact with contaminated surfaces and often put their hands in their mouths,” Mr Onyebuchi Nwoke mentioned.
“Even walking barefoot through contaminated floodwater can expose them to parasites such as hookworm.”
The dangers may enhance throughout flooding, he mentioned, when contaminated water from overflowing drains spreads into houses, markets and different public areas.
“When floodwater overflows, it carries pathogens from drains into homes, contaminates food and water sources, and increases people’s exposure to disease-causing organisms,” he mentioned.
Mr Onyebuchi Nwoke additionally warned that groundwater may become contaminated where septic methods are poorly constructed, leak or overflow, significantly in areas with a excessive water desk.
He known as for stronger enforcement towards unlawful wastewater connections, common inspection of drainage infrastructure and improved sewage administration.
‘Infrastructure alone cannot solve the problem’
Olamide Martins Ogunlade, Associate Director for Climate Change and Extractives on the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), mentioned utilizing stormwater drains for wastewater undermines the aim for which the infrastructure was constructed.
“Public drains are meant to carry rainwater away quickly to reduce flooding,” Mr Ogunlade mentioned. “When people connect wastewater or sewage pipes to them, they are forcing the drainage system to perform a function it was never designed for.”
According to him, changing stormwater drains into open sewers not solely weakens the drainage system but in addition will increase environmental air pollution and public well being dangers.
He mentioned mixing sewage with stormwater creates situations for the speedy unfold of cholera, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis and different waterborne illnesses, significantly throughout heavy rainfall when contaminated drains overflow into streets, houses and markets. The polluted drains additionally become breeding websites for mosquitoes and rodents whereas contaminating close by rivers and lagoons.
Mr Ogunlade mentioned the scarcity of public sewer infrastructure in lots of components of Lagos can’t justify the unlawful discharge of wastewater into drainage channels.
“Property owners have a responsibility to provide safe and approved wastewater disposal systems,” he mentioned. “Wastewater should be contained and treated, not discharged directly into public drains.”
He additionally raised considerations over buildings constructed on drainage alignments, saying such developments make it troublesome for presidency companies to examine drains, take away blockages, detect unlawful wastewater connections and perform routine upkeep.
“In a flood-prone city like Lagos, preserving drainage corridors is just as important as constructing new ones,” he mentioned. “Once drains are built over, problems remain hidden until a major flood exposes them.”
Commenting on Lagos State’s funding in drainage infrastructure, Mr Ogunlade mentioned constructing new drains alone wouldn’t clear up the issue if upkeep, enforcement and public cooperation remained weak.
“Infrastructure alone cannot solve the problem,” he mentioned. “Government must pay as much attention to maintaining existing drainage systems, enforcing environmental regulations and educating the public as it does to building new infrastructure. If wastewater management is neglected, even the best drainage system will eventually fail.”
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