Farmers and dwellers in cities with high intensity of rainfalls and resultant flooding in Nigeria are seriously counting their losses. The impact of the increasing rate of downpour on farm produce, lives and property is proving catastrophic.
Apart from farmers losing crop yields to rain damage, waterlogged soils, and delays in both planting and harvesting, the increasing rate of flooding have also aggravated transportation problems experienced by these farmers and motorists due to damaging effect of flood on road infrastructure.
At the peak of every rainy season, flood wreaks havoc on planted agricultural crops and in some cases end up carrying away the top soil leaving the land barren. It also destroys all immovable properties such as houses that get submerged in flood waters.
In Lagos for instance, whenever it rains for three consecutive days especially between June and September, majority of the streets, roads and people’s homes are usually heavily flooded particularly in areas like Victoria Island, Lekki, Ikoyi, Maroko, Agege, Isolo and Oworonsoki.
Presently, most roads and streets in Lagos metropolis have become impassable as they have developed portholes and gullies that result in heavy traffic congestion for motorists and passengers.
On Thursday, October 24, 2019, Chiedu Ebie, secretary to the Delta State Government said the State has in four weeks recorded 18,000 persons displaced by flood, and that they are currently at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
Reeling out figures, he said that in Patani IDP camp there are 5, 228 persons; in Emede camp 2,842; in Alaka 2,756; Ashaka 1,686; Utagba-Ogbe 1,650 and in Ewulu the number is 1,772 persons.
BDSUNDAY recalls that on Wednesday, October 23, 2019, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State had raised the alarm, that the current flooding in Isheri–North, a border area on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, has gone beyond the state government.
Abiodun, who described Isheri-North as area in Ogun that has several estates and deplorable road infrastructure, said that the entire estates have been completely submerged.
“This place requires to be declared a state of emergency and we are actually going to do that because the problem is beyond the state,” he said.
Presently, communities and estates in some parts of Lagos and Ogun States have been submerged in water following heavy downpour as well as the opening of Oyan Dam. Communities around Ketu and Mile 12 in Lagos; Akute and Warewa, as well as OPIC in Ogun State have remained flooded in recent time due to the water released from the Oyan Dam and the rise in sea level.
To resolve this, Tunji Bello, Lagos State commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, said the state government was in talks with the officials of the Ogun-Osun River Basin Authority, to control the situation.
Also, on Friday, October 11, 2019, reports had it that Ebonyi State Emergency Management Agency (ESEMA) said that flood displaced close to 30,000 people, including children in six local government areas of the state.
Chibueze Iteshi, the agency’s acting executive secretary, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abakaliki that the flood submerged farmlands, livestock and houses.
According to Iteshi, the disaster affected infants, children from one to 12 years, adults from 18 to 49, 50 years and above, who were housed at camps.
“When the disaster occurred, about 95 percent of the children stopped going to school because the school structures were also affected by storm,” he said.
Before the Ebonyi incident, it was reported on the October 10, that after days of heavy downpour in Lagos and its Ogun State neighboring communities, that Magboro (Oke-Afa) area of Obafemi Owode LGA in Ogun State, became flooded such that residents were finding it difficult to return to their homes.
As a result of the torrential rain, some houses were submerged in waters while roads were cut off from the communities on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Report has it that one Ejike, a gas retailer, who owns Kingsfield Gas at Magboro, was swept away by the flood.
According eye-witness report, the deceased got drowned in a flood around the Sparklight Estate area of the expressway in Ogun and his bloated body was discovered by the search party of Ilaje fishermen around High-Impact Sparklight Road.
Bolaji Dada, a resident attributed the flood to the diversion of waterways by Julius Berger, the contractor handling the rehabilitation of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
Findings by BDSUNDAY show that before these incidents, story had it that no fewer than 300 houses and several farmlands were destroyed by floods in Ngalda, Yobe in August 2019. The floods, which followed days of persistent rainfall, also destroyed schools and livestock.
In Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria, it was reported that rainstorms and flooding affected parts of the state from 01 August, 2019. According to reports, seven persons died and dozens of houses were damaged in the city of Yola, the Adamawa State capital, resulting to power supply cut in some areas of the city.
On 2 August, heavy rainfall affected central areas of the country, with flooding reported in Abuja. It was said that a government official died when his car was swept away by flood in the city.
In Kaduna state, for instance, report has it that government on August 3, called for residents living close to the Kaduna River and other flood-prone areas to temporarily relocate to safer areas.
Meanwhile, heavy rain in the southeastern state of Imo on 04 August caused flooding in Oguta which displaced around 6,000 people and damaged 200 homes.
Prior to these incidents, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), a Federal Government Agency under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources released its annual flood outlook in July, detailing that, 74 LGAs in 30 States in Nigeria are likely to experience severe flooding between July to September 2019.
Also, it has been observed that floods usually cause severe havoc annually in these states because most state governments, out of negligence, overlook these early warning.
Meanwhile, a recent report by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), confirmed that since June 2019, torrential rainfall and flash floods have hit 124 Local Government Areas within 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria.
This has affected a total number of 210,117 people with 171 casualties recorded in hospital and 130,610 people reported to be displaced, said IFRC report titled, ‘Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) Nigeria: Floods’.
Flash floods are due to the high intensity of the rainfalls at the peak of the flood season which is experienced in places that are flood prone. “The floods have been widespread with the worst impacting some states within the six geo-political zones in Nigeria,” the report says.
State by state breakdown shows that about five states in the North West were affected; seven states in the North Central; five states in the North East; five states in the South East; five states in the South-South and four states in South West, totalling 32 states that were severely affected by flood out of 36 states of Nigeria and FCT.
The report attributed the increasing rate of flooding experienced from 21 to 27th September 2019 to high-water levels in Rivers Niger and Benue as well as heavy rainfall in Cross River, Kogi, Niger, and Taraba States.
Exactly on the 21st and 22nd September, there was high peak in the water levels for River Niger and Benue which affected some communities in the above-mentioned States.
As a result, about 18,640 people and 3,104 households were affected by floods in 54 communities while about 4,485 people while 746 households are currently displaced.
Consequently, the State Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) was activated on the 22nd September 2019. According to the State Coordinator of the State SEMA, seven Local Government Areas (LGAs) located along Rivers Niger and Benue have been severely affected with over 90 percent of Ibaji community been fully submerged. Over 20 camps have also been set up for the flood affected households.
It has been grief and loud lamentation in parts of Ondo and Ekiti States as many indigenes and residents have suddenly become refugees following the loss of their houses to torrential rains and floods.
A nonagenarian, Mabel Ojute, an indigene of Ondo, was reported to have described the situation as hopeless. The old woman said she woke up and found out that her house had been taken over by water. She barely made to safety when the building collapsed.
“l was in my sleep when I felt an unusual coldness in my body and I quickly got up. Before I knew what was happening, the entire house had been filled up with water.
“I began to shout for help, calling the people around for help. I also heard some other people in the communities whose houses have been submerged by flood calling for help. I rushed out of the house shouting, but soon after my house came down. I am lucky to be alive,” she said.
“I began to cry because I have nobody to help me; I have nothing left behind. The flood has destroyed everything I have. So, I am appealing to government to come to my aid. As I’m talking to you now, most of us have nowhere to lay our heads. Since the incident happened, we have been sleeping on the roads upland our communities,” the old woman said.
Pundits believed that early warning is a proactive mechanism in which certain recognised agencies take to the study of climate and human interactions with the environment towards foretelling the occurrence of floods, with a view of effectively being prepared and averting loss of lives and properties to flood menace.
To reduce the reoccurring rate of flooding in Nigeria, there is need to adopt preventive strategies that involve structural and non-structural measures. This can include measures such as checking of dams, levees, flood walls and adequate drainage systems to help control periodic inundation in the areas that are liable to flooding.
There is also need to construct structures for irrigation and the use of excess run-off water for inter-basin transfer as an alternative to absorb excess water from the Cameroon.
However, it is believed that checking of dams will reduce peak flows; levees and flood walls confines flow within predetermined channels while adequate drainage systems will reduce peak flow stages of flood and divert excessive flow.
In communities where the rate of flow of storm water is high, government can begin to construct embankments to breakdown storm water that could result into floods. There could be a plan developed and applied to prohibit certain types of building or activities in flood high risk zones.
There is also need to construct a flood way that allows floods to flow through the community with most minimal or no damage.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
