The National Emergency Management Agency said at the weekend that the current trend of flooding indicated that 29 states and 172 Local Government Areas were impacted, 1,048,312 people affected, 625,239 displaced, and 259 deaths recorded nationwide.
In an update by the Director General, NEMA, Zubaida Umar, said that the statistics were released on Thursday at the National Emergency Coordination Forum meeting to review strategies and reassign responsibilities in the face of current realities in the pattern and management of disasters nationwide including Borno State where a Search and Rescue operation was ongoing.
The severe flooding which ravaged Maiduguri, the Borno State capital reportedly claimed at least 30 lives.
Hundreds of homes were flooded by the incident, which also caused significant damage to properties, including farmlands, residential areas, and business premises.
The disaster followed the collapse of the Alau Dam, which overflowed its banks, sending floodwaters from about 10 kilometres away into Maiduguri.
Floods are the most common and recurring disaster in Nigeria. These disasters have become part of the country’s history, causing big changes to the environment, sweeping away homes while forcing many to relocate, and even taking the lives of settlers.
The World Economic Forum said that heavy rains combined with poor urban planning have made parts of Nigeria more susceptible to flooding.
“Nigeria also needs to strengthen its regulatory, governance and institutional capacity in the area of spatial planning, regional cooperation on trans boundary water resources management, emergency response time, flood prediction, and enforcement of environmental and spatial planning laws.”
For decades, Nigerians have fought a relentless battle against this crisis. From overflowing rivers to failing drainage systems, the causes are diverse, but the impact is often devastating.
According to the NIGERIA Post-Disaster Needs Assessment 2012 Floods, heavy rains between July and October 2012 combined with rising water levels resulting from the runoff contributed to the flooding of human settlements located downstream of the Kainji, Shiroro, and Jebba dams on the Niger River; the Lagdo dam in Cameroon on the Benue River; the Kiri dam on the Gongola River; and several other irrigation dams.
In some cases, the dams were damaged; in others, water had to be released at full force to avert an overflow.
The National Emergency Management Agency reported in 2012 that 363 people were killed, 5,851 were injured, and 3,871,530 were displaced due to the resulting floods.
Also in 2017, it was reported that over 100,000 people in Benue State were displaced after the Benue River overflowed due to several days of heavy rain. 12 local government areas of the state were affected and around 4,000 homes were damaged.
In 2020, while the world battled the coronavirus, millions of people in West and Central Africa were battling ravaging floods. In October, flooding affected 2.2 million people in the regions where excess rainfalls were exceeded, destroying houses, goods, crops and fields, and land degradation in communities that majorly rely on agriculture, pushing vulnerable families deep into crisis.
In Nigeria, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 436,000 citizens were affected, 62,000 were displaced and about 66,000 homes were damaged.
The 2022 floods were considered Nigeria’s worst in decades. Severe floods in Nigeria which began in September caused the deaths of over 600 people and displaced 1.3 million from their homes across various states in Nigeria, according to the World Economic Forum. In Anambra State, 76 people died trying to flee the flood after an escape boat capsized.
The events were blamed on the release of excess water from Cameroon’s Lagdo dam in the middle of September. Nigeria does not have a buffer dam to prevent this flow though the need has existed since 1982 when the Lagdo dam was completed.
In 2024, water from the Alau Dam in Maiduguri, which collapsed on the morning of September 10, 2024 submerged 70 percent of the Borno capital city leaving up to 800,000 thousand residents in the affected areas displaced.
The Director-General of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Barkindo Mohammed, described the situation in flooded Maiduguri town as terrible.
The recent heavy downpour recorded across the state also led to serious flooding in Biu, Chibok, Konduga, Bama, Dikwa and Jere LGAs forcing President Bola Tinubu to open up IDP camps to accommodate those stranded.
Floods are among the most frequent and costly natural disasters in terms of human hardship and economic loss.
While the annual seasonal climate prediction report by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency provides critical information to help guide decision-making across all sectors of the economy, most Nigerians hardly pay attention until disaster comes.
It is therefore no surprise that flooding has in recent years wreaked havoc in several communities across the country.
Early in the year, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency identified 31 states as high-risk areas for significant flood impacts. It warned that most of the flood incidents would result from high rainfall intensities of long duration and poor and blocked drainage systems while warning of the health implications.
Authorities in the 36 states had enough time to prepare adequate measures against the elements. But little or nothing was done hence we now must contend with the tragedy of losing hundreds of people with hundreds of thousands of others displaced.
Nigeria can address the flooding menace and minimise its effect through a multi-pronged approach.
First, a combination of hard infrastructural solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation should be pursued.
Examples include the construction of dams and reservoirs to hold excess water, riverbank protection, construction of levees and spillways, appropriate drainage systems and storm water management regimes, and dredging of some of the major rivers in Nigeria.
Examples of ecosystem-based solutions could include reforestation in important river catchments, planting native vegetation on flood plains that have been claimed for cropping, and creating riparian buffers through vegetation.
Each of these options would need to be carefully studied and implemented.
Nigeria also needs to strengthen its regulatory, governance and institutional capacity in the area of spatial planning, regional cooperation on trans boundary water resources management, emergency response time, flood prediction, and enforcement of environmental and spatial planning laws.
Building on flood plains must be avoided at all costs. Awareness raising, education and disaster risk communication and messaging need to be strengthened to minimise flooding effects in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency and the National Emergency Management Agency are all important institutions that need resources and capacity to avert flooding in Nigeria.
