EDITORIAL: Preventing another imminent round of deadly flooding!

Alarm bells have been ringing from environmental authorities, over the likelihood of flooding from this year’s heavy rainfalls. They are urging citizens to evacuate from flood plains and for public agencies to redouble their efforts in forestalling the disaster before it occurs. In this context, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has put a lot of states in the North on alert, as the water levels of River Niger rises menacingly upstream in the Republic of Benin.

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Three states – Kebbi, Niger and Kwara – have been identified to be at high-risk because of their proximity to the Republic of Benin. Despite this, nine other states and 25 locations are also in the vulnerability loop. The continuous rise of the water levels of the river will invariably result in the overflow of its banks and the submersion of coastal communities. In its wake would be mass deaths and the destruction of houses, alongside other invaluable property.

To forestall the impact, especially in terms of the loss of lives, the Director-General of NEMA, Zubaida Umar, has directed officials of the agency in charge of coastal communities to ramp up their advocacy and sensitisation for the residents of these areas to evacuate to safer and higher grounds. The states at high-risk and other helpless ones have been charged to activate their State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and their Local Emergency Management Committees (LEMC) to avoid any tier of government being caught off-guard when the chips are down.

Non-adherence to safety protocols and environmental abuses led to the Mokwa flooding disaster in June, which claimed 200 lives, while 500 others were declared missing. Children and women were largely the victims. It was the worst of such disaster in 60 years. The overnight deluge washed away a bridge on a major road in the area, which inevitably cut off the north from the southern part of the country. Its impact on the economy, especially in relation to the movement of trucks transporting food and other essential goods ,was telling.

One of the survivors, Adamu Yusuf, agonizingly told the BBC: “I watched helplessly as water washed away my family and I survived because I could swim.” That tragedy put the country in the global spotlight for the wrong reason.

There are four months remaining in 2025. From weather forecasts of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, the dreadful days are not yet over. The agency predicts that 554 communities and 142 Local Government Areas are susceptible to flash floods from heavy rainfalls between July and September. Also, October to November may be the “Ides of March” period for 484 communities across 56 LGAs in states that have been put on alert. They include Adamawa, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Gombe, Borno, Bauchi, Jigawa and Benue. Communities on the Jebba – Lokoja flood plains are among the most endangered.

The raising of alerts by federal agencies are not enough in addressing this challenge. There is a sense in which it could be said that governance has failed on this level. When residents of flood plains are advised to evacuate, there are no arrangements regarding where they could move to. This makes them somewhat indifferent to calls to escape the imminent danger.

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The 2012 and 2022 flooding disasters, which claimed 306 lives and displaced 1.3 million people during the former period; and more than 603 lives, alongside the destruction of 82,053 houses, displacement of 1.302 million persons, and submersion of 332,327 hectares of farmland during the latter period, offer experiences in hindsight, which any proactive government could use towards the prevention of similarly anticipated humanitarian crises.

As such, the failings that arose during the Mokwa flooding, must not be allowed to repeat themselves. We urge states and local governments to build temporary shelters for those identified to be living along flood plains to evacuate to. This is a basic and irreducible minimum expected of them. In fact, as Governor Chukwuma Soludo remarked in 2022, “We can no longer deal with perennial flooding as an emergency. We knew it would happen. We know the next one will come.”

It smacks of playing Russian roulette with the lives of Nigerians by toying with the necessity of dredging the lower River Niger from Warri to Baro in Niger State. The Senate said it provided funds for this in the 2024 Appropriation Act. If properly carried out, the River Niger’s water level has less chance of its banks overflowing.

Curiously, the late Musa Yar’Adua/Goodluck Jonathan presidencies provided a combined ₦43.3 billion for the project. And during an international conference and exhibition by the Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) in 2014, Jonathan declared the dredging of the river completed. But the lack of marine activities like shipping and vessel movement in inland waterways transportation make the former president’s claim empty. This is unfortunate.

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What is clear is Nigeria’s indecisiveness and lack of transparency in dredging the River Niger. Equally worrisome is the non-commitment to the agreement with Cameroon for Nigeria to complete the Dasin Hausa Dam to act as a buffer against excess water releases from its Lagdon Dam. When released, water from this dam regularly submerges many states and communities in the country. This official indifference should cease!

The foregoing data of damage from the annual flooding debacles are not mere statistics, but evidence of a high-stakes act resulting in the continuous loss of human lives; in addition to massive losses of habitations, farmlands and property. This brings to the fore the economic dimension of the crisis, as food security is affected due to the submersion of hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland across the country. The economic effects keep exacerbating the toxic security situation in the country.

Some of these catastrophes are unavoidable, as also consequent upon global warming and other extreme weather events. But their impacts could be mitigated through pragmatic policies acted on as and when due. The wise counsel of the United Nations World Meteorological Agency that “flash flood gives limited time for reaction” is a tool for proactive engagement by the authorities towards saving the lives of Nigerians vulnerable to this existential challenge.

The UN weather agency states that globally there are 5,000 deaths resulting from flooding annually, which more so leaves behind a staggering $50 billion in economic losses. Its tolls on Nigeria, however, could be reduced if we embrace appropriate environmental and urban planning preventive policies. Those who trifle with nature’s fury do so at their own peril.