Climate Change and Government Neglect: Deadly combination for Nigeria’s flood victims

In the first quarter of every year, relevant climate, hydrological and disaster management agencies in Nigeria often issue climate forecasts and risk assessment advisories to mitigate and manage extreme weather occurrences and possible disasters for the year.

This year was no exception to such a proactive gesture by these agencies.

However, despite the annual forecasts, flood warnings, and climate-related disaster risk management strategies provided by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigeria’s preparedness against climate risks and associated hazards, such as devastating floods triggered by heavy rainfall and regulatory failures, still requires significant improvement.

NiMET logo

These floods continue to cause widespread damage to communities across the country each year, disrupting the nation’s socio-economic ecosystem.

Lingering concerns

In recent years, losses incurred from devastating floods in the country have been too pronounced to be ignored. Each episode of the disaster exposes Nigeria’s negligence towards sustainable environmental practices across urban and rural communities.

Meanwhile, the flood scenarios exacerbate the country’s lingering socio-economic crisis amidst inadequate policy implementation and prolonged ineffective oversight functions by relevant authorities.

The continuous flood events in the nation have led to severe humanitarian crises, as seen recently in various states, including parts of the country’s capital city, Abuja.  In Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, the recent flood displaced thousands of residents and destroyed farmlands, businesses, and hospitals, among other impacts.

Officials attributed the disaster to the failure of the Alau dam. Additionally, the deliberate release of water from the Lagdo dam in Cameroon has submerged numerous areas in Adamawa State and its neighbouring states.

The Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, blamed the Federal Ministry of Water Resources for years of failure to carry out routine dam maintenance. Several drainages linking streets across the Maiduguri metropolis (as with most states in the country) have also been blocked by solid waste materials due to the existing improper waste management culture.

Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State. [PHOTO CREDIT: Twitter handle of Gov. Zulum]

“The Federal Ministry of Water Resources ought to have been carrying out routine maintenance of dams. Honestly speaking, this has not been done for a long time. This is something that we need to put our heads together so that we can do it,” the governor told the BBC.

Annually, experts argue that the impact of the floods witnessed across Nigeria would have been minimal had the government properly maintained the infrastructure needed to control floods across the country’s zones.

The failure of the federal and state governments to conduct regular dredging of major river pathways and their tributaries has significantly contributed to the country’s annual flood disasters.

Some experts said this underscores the ineffectiveness of government responses to managing extreme weather concerns across the country as climate change continues to wreak havoc locally and globally.

Likewise, many Nigerians have accused the government of being “reactive” when disasters strike rather than deploying timely “proactive” steps to avert the impending danger.

This year, several communities and cities in at least 13 of Nigeria’s 36 states have been inundated by overflowing water, orchestrated mainly by heavy rainfall, dam bursts, regulatory failures and ineffective dissemination of “early warning systems” across major climate frontline communities in the country.

Major flooding incidents experienced in Nigeria over the past three years have been highly catastrophic. They have killed dozens of people, crippled businesses, and destroyed homes, farms, infrastructures, schools and hospitals, among others. 

For instance, in 2022, the devastating flood that affected over 26 of Nigeria’s 36 states swept across expansive agricultural fields, destroying crops, businesses and infrastructures, leaving a death toll of over 600 people, according to authorities.

At the time, many Nigerians described the flooding incident as the worst aftermath of climate change Nigeria has witnessed since the nation recorded a similar disaster in 2012. Like in 2022, several farmlands and homes were also engulfed last year. Farmers and business owners across central climate frontline states and agricultural heartlands recorded significant losses. However, the impact of the floods was not as severe as the previous year.

During this period, the consequences of the damage are evident in the state of food availability, accessibility, and affordability across the country, amidst significant surges in the prices of staple food largely orchestrated by government policies and changing weather conditions.

Authorities and activists often attribute the annual flood incidents in Nigeria to climate change. However, some experts argue that these floods are primarily caused by the ineffective regulation of water flow.

In major Nigerian states and cities, clogged drainages and silted river pathways severely impede water movement during heavy rainfall, leading to extensive flooding and infrastructure damage. For instance, the severe flooding in Maiduguri has been linked to the federal government’s prolonged neglect of routine maintenance for major dams.

During a recent assessment of states and communities affected by flooding over the past three years as this medium reports the flood incidents, it was evident that the accumulation of silt in waterways has reduced their capacity to handle high water volumes during heavy rainfall.

In addition to the urgent need to maintain existing dams, there has been a longstanding neglect of constructing necessary buffer dams in strategic locations across the country. This has raised concerns about the effectiveness of the annual ecological fund allocated for flood prevention and management purposes.

Flood warnings

In Nigeria, three main agencies are responsible for predicting and managing climate-related risks and disasters. These agencies are NiMet, NIHSA, and NEMA, operating under the federal ministries of Aviation, Water Resources, and Humanitarian Affairs. In addition, each of the 36 states also has its agencies to perform similar functions, although their impact may not be widely felt at the local level.

Established in 2003, NiMet is an agency of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development. Its main responsibilities include advising the government on meteorology, interpreting government policy in the field of meteorology, and issuing weather and climate forecasts for the safe operations of aircraft, ocean-going vessels, and oil rigs.

NiMet also collects and disseminates meteorological data and information, coordinates research activities, and publishes scientific papers to support sustainable socio-economic activities in Nigeria.

One of NiMet’s key publications is the “Seasonal Rainfall/Climate Prediction (SCP)” report, issued at the beginning of each year. This report provides information on the probability of rainfall onset, cessation, length of season, and whether conditions are expected to be wetter, drier, or average over a given period.

The SCP report is intended to assist farmers and others in the agricultural, forestry, and related sectors in understanding and using meteorological and climatological information to plan their activities for the year.

The SCP released on 20 February indicates that rains will be delayed in some parts of the country. According to NiMet, the states of Borno, Abia, and Akwa Ibom will witness an early onset. 

The agency also noted that an early end of the rainy season is predicted for parts of Yobe, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Cross River Ebony, Ogun and Lagos states. In contrast, NiMet predicted a late cessation over the southern states of Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Ekiti and some parts of Delta, Ogun, Oyo, Kogi, Kwara, FCT, Niger and Kaduna.

Meanwhile, NIHSA was established in 2010 to assess Nigeria’s surface and groundwater resources and maintain hydrological stations nationwide. The agency releases the Annual Flood Outlook (AFO) report, which provides expected annual and seasonal patterns of flooding and issues advisories to states and local government areas.

The latest AFO report launched in April predicted high floods in 148 local government areas in 31 states, including Borno, and listed 249 LGAs in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory as within moderate flood risk areas.

The report recommended implementing early warning systems, improving infrastructure, and strengthening institutional capacity to effectively coordinate flood response and recovery efforts.

However, considering the scale of flood victims and damages incurred in the country recently and in the past three years, it appears the warnings and recommendations of the AFO annual reports have not been fully considered by the relevant authorities.

NEMA’s response not enough

Meanwhile, every year, the forecasts presented in the AFO report are usually analysed by NEMA, an agency of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. The primary function of NEMA is to coordinate resources towards efficient and effective disaster prevention, preparation, mitigation and response to build a culture of preparedness, prevention, response and community resilience to disaster in Nigeria.

After completing the AFO analysis, NEMA publishes the Disaster Risks Management Plans/Strategy for the public and communicates its findings to all state and local government authorities for appropriate actions.

In some cases, it also deploys radio jingle methods to communicate early warning strategies to rural communities and to help sensitise residents of communities at risk of the implications of the impending disaster (flood).

However, several officials of NEMA who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES recently argued that the government at all levels is not doing enough to curb flooding in the country.

READ ALSO: Flood: 11 killed, over 11,8000 farmlands washed away in Niger State – Official

“The truth is that we are not able to cover all the communities. In the pilot phase, we look at the most vulnerable communities, two or three and reach out to them. We expect that the local government should as well extend the sensitisation process to other vulnerable communities but this is not the case most times,” said a top official of NEMA who asked not to be named as he was not permitted to speak to the press.

“The government is not doing enough. The urban flooding is due to poor drainages and lack of adequate canals that water will pass through to some of these rivers. We need to deploy a multifaceted approach if we want to manage floods in the long run and all hands must be on deck,” the official said.

He lamented that the staff strength at NEMA across states is inadequate. But at the same time, he said, it will cost the government more revenue if the agency is to recruit more people.

“So what the government needs to do is to recruit community volunteers so that the amount of money the government will spend will be reduced. The government should do more of community engagement by empowering them to understand the risks associated with flooding,” the NEMA official said, adding that disaster management is everyone’s responsibility.

How to address Nigeria’s flooding

A former minister of commerce, Mustafa Bello, who served under former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2022, said Nigeria’s perennial flood disaster could be permanently addressed by deploying water harvesting technology, channelling excess waters to recharge the shrinking Lake Chad and dredging major water pathways.

Mustapha Bello, a former minister of commerce (1999 – 2002), speaks with PREMIUM TIMES on domestic solutions to reducing flooding in the country by recharging the Lake Chad basin. [PHOTO CREDIT: George Kaduna]

The former minister, a civil engineer, said he and his team developed a plan to do this. In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, he said Nigeria can solve the country’s annual flooding problem with less than $3 billion.

“Over the years, the government has not thought it wise to engage major waterways channels in maintenance by making sure that the situation that takes place is being dredged and harvested for something else,” he said.