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Economic Confidential,
May, 2009
FEATURES
Raising the bar in flood management
By Saadatu Ovosi
Water is life. This is so because almost all living things are made
up of and depends on water for survival. It is one of the most
available resources provided by nature as more than three quarter of
the universe is covered by water. Thus we have the seas, oceans,
rivers, lakes, canals, springs, rains and streams. All these are
sources of water. However, there exists limitation of access to some
of these. Perhaps, the more pervasive are the rains and streams.
It’s natural to look forward to the rains during the wet season of
the year. The season comes with the blessing of replenishing lost
water for domestic, agricultural and navigational uses among
others. It could also become a source of worry when the water
becomes excessive resulting in flood to cause damages. Flood is a
natural phenomenon that results from the overflow of the water
course. Some of these occur as a result of heavy rains, dam breakage
and blockage of the channels.
The
occurrence of flood poises serious dangers to the particular area.
The victims are exposed to numerous hazards while valuable resources
such as crops and the plains are usually also affected. However,
sometimes its occurrence results in somewhat blessing but these are
usually insignificant when compared to the damages. Statistics
indicate that flood account for about 40 percent of all deaths
caused by natural disasters, most of which are in the developing
nations. For example, 3.7 million people were killed in a 1931 flood
on China's Yangtze River. In 2000, four of the world's five largest
natural disasters were floods. So far in this year, an estimated
500,000 people in Uganda have already been affected by the floods!
Neighbouring regions in southern Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya have also
been badly hit.
Director General of National Emergency Management Agency retired Air
Vice Marshal Mohammed Audu-Bida has observed that the impact of
these disaster event is usually more pronounced on developing
countries largely due to low levels of technological know-how, poor
infrastructure, huge population and high poverty level among other
problems. What is needed to be done, he said, is global
collaborative efforts to manage the situation. The impacts caused by
flood can be very enormous on the environment and society. At the
domestic front, it destroys drainage system in the cities to cause
raw sewage to spillage. It also affects buildings which could be
significantly damaged. This is in addition to the catastrophic
effect on the environment as many toxic materials such as paints,
gasoline and chemicals can be released into the river, lakes bay and
ocean, killing maritime life. Flood may also cause million of money
worth of damage to a city, both evicting people from their homes and
running business.
Flooding has become an inherent problem in most urban centres. In
the last decade it has extended from the coastal areas to locations
in the interior resulting from heavy rain falls. Studies have
revealed that various socio-cultural activities promoted the
flooding in many of parts of the Nigerian urban centres. These
activities are characterised by stream or river channel encroachment
and abuse, increased paved surfaces and poor solid waste disposal
techniques, low degree of community awareness, poor environmental
education, ineffective town planning laws and poor environmental
management. Government, at various levels, needs to address these
issues. Statistics has revealed that about 1.5 million people in 18
countries lost their homes and livelihoods, with several scores
killed.
With the setting in of the rain the risk of flood is in the horizon
for some locations. A firm and sustainable flood risk management is
required. But this cannot be achieved in isolation – rather it
should be a part of community development. In this circumstance, it
is essential to build a community's capacity to understand their
vulnerabilities, strategies, activities and the role they could play
in managing flood risks without relying on external entities.
Government and concern organization need to evolve a community-based
flood hazard-mapping technique to address the fear of the disaster.
The approach should be made to focus on the effective development of
policies and correct the defects of the top-down approach in
disaster planning and to encourage all stakeholders' participation
in an integrated and sustainable manner. This way, flood risk can be
reduced to the minimum.
Saadatu Ovosi (NYSC Member)
NEMA Office, ABUJA |
