Unusual heavy rains worsened by climate change and environmental negligence have increased yearly flood disasters in states, disrupting businesses, and leading to loss of lives and property. Consequently, effective flood policies are in dire need to increase resilience, and adaptation and reduce impacts, VICTOR GBONEGUN reports.

Recent downpours in Lagos and other cities have exposed the federal and state governments’ unpreparedness in tackling high flood risk. Expectedly, this unpreparedness exacerbated by climate change is taking a heavy toll on the citizenry as reflected in the high financial, and humanitarian costs that the hapless citizens are paying.
 
As some state governments are busy pointing accusing fingers at residents, whom they accuse of breaching town planning laws, by building on drainage and canals and failing to adhere to extant building laws, challenges occasioning the environmental crisis remain unresolved.

As this happens, the increase in earth’s temperature is bringing about increased rains, flooding, rise in sea levels, and increased pollution. 
 
Up till now, many Nigerians are yet to recover from the devastating effects of the heavy downpours of recent years. For instance, the 2022 floods affected 34 out of the 36 states and displaced 1.4 million people. Over 600 people lost their lives, and over 82,000 houses were partially or fully damaged.

Also, 2,400 Nigerians were injured; about 33,000 hectares of land were affected, while cases of diarrhoea, water-borne diseases, respiratory infection, and skin diseases increased. In the northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe alone, a total of 7,485 cases of cholera, and 319 associated deaths were reported.

The 2023 flood disaster displacement report by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) also revealed that over 171,000 people were displaced, 178 local councils in 32 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) affected, and over 30 million land spaces were washed away.

However, when several cities across the country were recently flooded, not many remembered the 2024 rainfall prediction by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), which warned that coastal locations would experience flooding. That report stated that there is a possibility of isolated flash floods in areas that are prone to flooding and drought in some northern states, where the rainy season is expected to be short.

According to the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, 31 states would witness impending flooding between April and November 2024. He gave the high flood-risk states to include, Lagos, Kogi, Anambra, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Imo, Jigawa, Kadua, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, and Yobe.
    
The Guardian findings, however, revealed that across the states, the widespread devastation witnessed was mainly human-induced as they were caused by poor urban physical planning practices; failure to yield to early warning signals; non-adherence to building laws, inadequate environmental infrastructure, blocked drains, and a lack of adequate preparedness/measures to stop, or mitigate flooding impacts.

Most regretful is that most state governments, rather than increase investment in preventive measures like flood infrastructure, building more drains and dams, water channels, halting illegal land reclamation, improving public sensitisation on proper management of waste, and stopping sea level rise, still prefer to await the arrival of emergency reliefs to flood victims from the Federal Government.

Despite the data provided by NiMet, what remains critical is that little or nothing is being done by some states about flooding.
In Akwa Ibom, the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) has done some work in the state capital Uyo, and in riverine communities. In Rivers State, some communities were provided with jetties raised above zero level in terms of sea levels for boats to land and for people to come out safely if there is a flood.

For Anambra State, the government has intensified steps towards implementing environmental preservation techniques and the building of flood-resilient communities in coastal areas. A two-day workshop on flood resilient solutions, organised by the state’s Physical Planning Board, in conjunction with a private firm, was followed by a field visit to select coastal communities in Anambra East and West local councils.
 
In the North East Zone, Adamawa precisely, the state government warned residents to stop building on waterways and halt the indiscriminate dumping of refuse in drainages as a strategy to overcome the yearly perennial flooding. The Chief of staff to the governor, Mr Edgar Amos, warned that the government would not take it lightly with residents that are erecting structures that block waterways, which end up diverting rainwater into peoples’ houses.  

States like Lagos have since the last quarter of 2023, escalated their preparations for the rainy season by identifying various drainage channels and canals across that need dredging, cleaning, redesigning, and reconstruction to prevent impending flooding.

There are concerns that government efforts towards the prevention of flood disasters are often carried out in silos rather than deploying a combination of individual and collective initiatives. The government has also announced the start of construction on the nearly five-kilometre System 44 drainage channel along Mobil Road, Ogombo, and Ikota, aimed at controlling flooding in the Lekki axis .

The Lagos State Commissioner of Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, said that the construction of the drainage channel demonstrates the government’s readiness and commitment to addressing flooding that affects communities across the state. The initiative includes realignment and reclaiming the six-meter setbacks on both sides of System 156 and System 157 channels.  

Also, to reduce the impact of a devastating flood in Kogi State, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, recently commissioned the Koton Karfe Flood Control Project, and assured Nigerians of the Federal Government’s commitment to taking proactive measures to mitigate occurrences of flood disaster, and other related ecological problems through the intervention.

Represented by Director of SGF Main Office, Mr Simon Tyungu, he said that the project was part of the government’s efforts to forestall the recurrence of the 2022 flood with its attendant loss of property and hardship on the people of Koton Karfe, and its environs.

However, experts said the governance of flood and disaster risk could be improved through needs assessments, more community participation, better coordination between government and non-governmental organisations, and between government agencies themselves.

The Director-General of Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) Dr Joseph Onoja, who traced the problem to a lack of effective flood policies to reduce the impacts, lamented that the environment has been degraded as trees, which could have absorbed some of the excess waters have been cleared.

Onoja argued that the government is not doing enough in terms of enforcement as residents still build in flood-prone areas and plains, which should have provided a buffer to the erratic rainfall.

The former president of the Nigerian Environmental Society (NES), Dr Dorothy Bassey, said that the main problem is the lack of proper and adequate drainage in cities and local councils across the country.
 
She stated the need for the government to increasingly halt buildings without approvals, and the habit of sand filling low lands, which can worsen flooding impacts in locations.

She said: “Early warning signs should be a priority in flood risk areas with community involvement and awareness so that people can plan evacuation and move away to safe areas. Emergency preparedness is also key and drainage systems should be cleared periodically due to irresponsible waste dumping.”

An environmentalist, Prof. Edem Eniang, said that it is important for state governments to channel all waters and protect drainage infrastructure, desilting them regularly, and preventing building on drainage channels. 

He called for the setting up of early warning systems and structural measures across flood-prone states, while agencies like NEMA should evacuate people across the flood-prone zones as is the case in advanced countries to protect families and their property, stem high-level devastation of farmlands, especially in an era where food prices are soaring.  

Eniang added: “We already know the traditional travel roots of flood and could make preparations ahead so that flooding will not bring much catastrophe, and affect the larger populations. All the flood-prone states should create channels for floods to transverse freely into the Atlantic Ocean without being held up by silted channels.

Town planners must be interested in taking deliberate actions to ensure that buildings and other infrastructural developments are properly guided and people should not build on flood-prone areas. Sandfilling in Calabar, Lagos, Port Harcourt, and all others are disasters waiting to happen. Water must always find its level.”  

The post Cloudburst: Curtailing socio-economic losses in flood-prone states appeared first on Guardian Nigeria News.

Powered by WPeMatico