David Umahi, the Minister of Works has declared that the minimum distance for sand mining beneath bridges in Lagos State and other states should be restricted to 10km begining at the centre of the bridge.
On Wednesday, Umahi revealed this at a stakeholder’s meeting on compensation payments to property owners affected by the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project in Lagos.
He said, “Yesterday, we were alerted to a dredging company that is dredging sand about 1.2 kilometres from the Third Mainland Bridge which is very dangerous for the bridge. Already, we have incurred a lot of damages because of the mining of sand, and so I have directed that all sand dredging must be a minimum of 10km from the centre of any bridge nationwide, and we are going to be sending a memo to Mr President and the Federal Executive Council to adopt that.
“When you do dredging of sand from even 1km, 2km, 5km, you have created a depth within that point, and so there would be migration of sands from a far distance under the ocean current to fill it, you know the level of water at any point in time is the same, and that is why you see above sea level.
“Sand is being filled by ocean current, the piles we have in all our Lagos bridges are being secured by sand holding the piles, and so when you are harvesting this sand, they begin to go away from the piles, and so the piles are left with nothing holding it, which is very dangerous.”
He said, Any sand miner that contravenes the 10km minimum rule, the law enforcement agencies had been asked to arrest them.
He added, “We have directed that all mining of sand within our bridges should be within a minimum of 10km, already we have structural defects within Third Mainland Bridge and Carter Bridge, and we are addressing it.
“Hence, all approval from the mining of sand around our bridges within 10km, from the centre, left and right, and front and back, should henceforth stop, and I have directed the Federal Controller of Works for Lagos State, Olukorede Keisha, to write to the Commissioner of Police, Navy, and Army, for the arrest of anybody who contravenes this. It is very difficult to reconstruct these bridges if they go.”
