Last month, a story of one man’s experience with flooding came to light. His name was Mallam Haruna and he comes from Miga Local Government Area of Jigawa state along with his wife and five children. His family is one of several Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) that the floods had sacked from their communities. It was a very sad tale as he described how the rising water levels had submerged his home and farm land which was his source of livelihood. He also narrated how the flood waters swept many people, leading to the deaths of many of his extended family members as well as members of his community.
Lokoja the Kogi state capital is currently a ‘no go area’ so to speak. Thousands of travelers and residents have been stranded as the city has been overrun by heavy flooding. The Lokoja-Abuja Road which connects the North and South has practically been cut off, paralyzing economic activities, including food supply chain from the North to the South. From images that have inundated social media, one can see that many areas of the state are underwater. Lokoja sits at the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers and experts have said the flood is as a result of the Niger and Benue rivers breaking their banks.
The roughly 196 kilometers highway is one of the most critical roads in the country, for the movement of people and goods through vehicular transportation. The road is also very significant to the survival of the nation because it boosts economic activities in the country. It also links the entire southern Nigeria to Abuja, and to the rest of the northern states and therefore, one of the busiest roads in Nigeria. The fuel queue that has resurfaced across the FCT is certainly not unconnected with the flood that has grounded the Lokoja-Abuja Highway.
In fact, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has since blamed the current fuel scarcity in Abuja and other surrounding states on the inability of fuel trucks to access Lokoja roads. Currently seeing the extent of the devastation caused by floods across the country, one’s thoughts revert to Mallam Haruna who was lucky enough to find temporal reprieve in one of the IDP camps in the Federal Capital Territory.
Jigawa like many other states across the country is witnessing widespread flooding due to torrential rainfall. The State Emergency Management Agency says that the state has recorded 91 deaths from flooding this year, more than any state in the country. Similarly, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) the floods in 27 of Nigeria’s 36 states and capital city have affected half a million people and displaced over 100,000 people. The disaster has also destroyed thousands of hectares of farmland, worsening fears of a disruption of food supply.
One can still recall that earlier in the year, the 2022 Outlook predicted that there would be coastal flooding due to tidal surge and rise in sea level in many states across the country. From the devastation staring us in the face across several states, it is obvious that the ominous signs have become reality. Many Nigerians are still trying to recover from the 2012 floods which killed 363 people and displaced over 2.1 million people, with estimated damage and losses put at N2.6 trillion, by NEMA.
A cocktail of reasons has been blamed for the devastating floods that has submerged homes and farmland, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people across the country. From climate change to the non-implementation of environmental guidelines, overflowing from some local rivers and the release of excess water from Lagdo dam in neighboring Cameroon’s northern region, have been fingered as responsible for the floods.
Nigeria isn’t the only country experiencing this phenomenon though. Hurricane Fiona made landfall In America and the Caribbean, destroying power lines, roads, houses and telecommunication infrastructure. South-East Asia has not been spared of floods whose patterns are governed by the volume of rain that comes with the summer Monsoon season. In the state of Himachal Pradesh in India, annual Monsoon floods killed over 1,550 people in five years. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have also been flood-ravaged, resulting in loss of lives and massive destruction of food crops.
As a country though, it is unacceptable that flood menace has become a normal and re-occurring phenomenon. From the extent of devastation in many parts of the country, it is apparent that the early warnings of NIMET that there would be an above normal rainfall which might lead to flooding in 12 states weren’t headed. However, one must say that the Humanitarian Ministry under the leadership of Sadia Umar Farouq has been performing admirable, providing succor to victims by distributing food and non-food items to disaster-stricken states particularly worst hit states of Jigawa and Anambra.
Nonetheless, proactive and preventive measures are needed to curb flooding. Flooding can be prevented in many ways, particularly through effective mitigation measures and proper planning. Measures such as check dams, levees, flood walls and adequate drainage systems will help control periodic inundation in the areas that are liable to flooding. Also, the 36 States and the FCT authority should create retention basins for harvesting flood waters downstream of major rivers where there is scarcity of groundwater thereby using the flood waters for possible groundwater recharge and other uses. By so doing, the fresh flood water will not be lost to the sea to become saline water.
We know that the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon periodically releases excess water which often overflows into the country. This is often cited as one of the reasons for flooding in Nigeria. States in north-eastern Nigeria namely Borno, Adamawa and Taraba that are downstream within the River Benue drainage basin are usually flooded whenever water is released from the Lagdo reservoir. However, this shouldn’t be the case. Since we know they release the water and in fact notified the country of it this year on 13th September 2022, measures should have been taken to alleviate the impact it will have on the country.
Following the completion of the Lagdo Dam, the Nigerian government, according to an agreement, was to embark on a similar project along River Benue. The purpose of the dam was to contain the flood water released upstream from Lagdo Dam and prevent flooding and the attendant destruction of property and loss of lives.
It was to be located in Dasin Village of Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Hitherto, the proposed dam is yet to become a reality. It is now imperative to build a bumper dam to cushion the effect of water released by Lagdo Dam.
From all indications, Nigeria isn’t out of the woods yet. The government has identified states still at risk this year (Anambra, Delta, Cross River, Rivers and Bayelsa) and has called for the immediate evacuation to higher grounds to avert a catastrophic outcome. The fallout of the floods in the short and long term however is that there might just be a possible outbreak of water-borne diseases. Also, we would soon begin to witness the rise in the prices of food items due to the gridlock in Lokoja brought about by the floods.
As long as long-term measures are not taken to react to the yearly flooding witnessed, the story of how heavy rains brings a thriving region to its knees is about to get a lot more familiar. Never a better example of ‘when it rains, it pours’ have we witnessed than with these recent floods. And if care is not taken, what we have seen with the merciless floods this year is incredibly small compared to what may come in the future. …And that’s kind of terrifying!
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