What was merely an alert a few weeks ago has morphed into reality with reports that some communities in Zamfara, Plateau, Gombe, Benue, Nasarawa and Kano states have been overwhelmed by floods. This seems to be a harbinger of greater deluge that is underway. Government at all levels, therefore, should urgently respond to the challenge.
The authorities in Niger Republic had signalled their Nigerian counterparts about the looming danger reminiscent of the episode in 2012, following rising water levels in the upper reaches of the River Niger. About 801 persons were reportedly displaced by this rage of nature in Zamfara penultimate week; 5,300 houses were destroyed in six local government areas in Kano and 150 in Kumo town in Gombe. Farmlands have also been devastated in Jos East Local Government Area. River Niger, River Benue and Kainji Dam overflowed their banks on August 8, as a result of persistent downpour.
Following from this, the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency and the National Emergency Management Agency spiritedly warned some states and communities on the coast to take proactive steps. The Director-General of NEMA, Muhammad Sidi, in a statement on August 6, had warned that “this high level of water in Niger Republic is spreading to Benin Republic and invariably to Nigeria.”
Unfortunately, enlightenment on public safety is not taken seriously in Nigeria until tragedy strikes; otherwise, the lessons of the 2012 flooding would have been enough for those at risk to take adequate precautions. However, the appropriate government agencies should act fast now – compel these recalcitrant hordes to heed the red alert.
The states considered to be at peril are Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Cross River, Enugu, Ebonyi, Edo and Delta. Others are Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara. The 2012 debacle occurred when Cameroon released water from its Lagbo Dam. A total of 363 lives were lost; 2.3 million people displaced and 597,476 houses destroyed, according to official statistics.
It was a nightmare that gave birth to a Presidential Flood Relief and Rehabilitation Committee that comprised 34 members, jointly chaired by Aliko Dangote and Olisa Agbakoba. An appeal fund it launched, targeting N100 billion, only realised N11.35 billion in cash and pledges. The states affected were given N500 million, N400 million, N300 million and N250 million each, depending on the degree of damage suffered.
As food, cash and other relief materials were not enough to go round, six months after the fund-raising, the committee threatened to publish the names of those who failed to redeem their pledges, mostly corporate bodies and contractors. One of the states in the South that found it difficult to fashion out a formula for the distribution of its N500 million grant, grudgingly stressed that it needed N20 billion to face the challenge squarely. In the face of these crises, most of the victims were abandoned to their fate.
It will, therefore, be more daunting for the country to face a similar humanitarian challenge now, as the economy is in distress -27 states owe arrears of salaries, just as Abuja is financially challenged as well. Besides, the country has been stretched to the limit in taking care of the 1.9 million Internally Displaced Persons, victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, who are in various camps across the country.
While we may have little or no control over rivers that burst their banks, embracing appropriate environmental management, town planning and enforcement of rules will certainly mitigate the impact of flooding that results from heavy rainfall. Regrettably, this is not the case in many states.
Most water channels and drainage in the metropolis have been blocked due to indiscriminate discharge of refuse into them. Houses are illegally built on such corridors while land reclamation is being carried out with reckless abandon. These barriers to rain water flow are recipes for disaster. Consequently, the environmental authorities need to be aggressive in the dredging of canals and clearance of the drainage.
We are afraid of what may become the fate of residents of Lekki Peninsula at a period like this. Much of the area is a reclaimed landscape. Being a city lying below sea level, Lagos is vulnerable to ocean fury. Interestingly, the state government is conscious of this fact with its embankments at the Lagos Bar beach and dredging of canals in the wake of the 2012 flooding. But more preemptive measures are required for it to effectively counter flooding. It is hoped, however, that other states that are equally so challenged, will take a cue from what the state has done so far.
In fact, the consequences of flooding are beyond what the Federal Government can handle alone, let alone any state, if its dangers are situated within a global context. China, Japan, Macedonia, the United States, Greece and France, among others, have sad tales to tell, requiring billions of dollars to rebuild damaged infrastructure.
It will cost China, for instance, $33 billion – an amount far above the $26.5 billion in Nigeria’s current foreign reserves – to remedy damage caused by flood so far this year, according to an Aon Catastrophe Report. A total of 125,000 houses have collapsed; 344,000 damaged and 164 persons dead in that country.
Evident in all of this is the fact that climate change, which is at the root of this annual nightmare, is real. This is why it is crucial that all hands should be on deck to combat this scourge successfully.
