– 603 dead, 2,407 injured
-official to meet Cameroon authorities over Lagdo Dam
– experts blame failure to prepare for climate change for disaster
Augustine Aminu and Hauwa Ali
No fewer than 2,504,095 Nigerians have so been affected by the ravaging flood disaster in parts of the country while 332,327 hectares of farmlands and 82,053 houses have been damaged, the federal government has said.
The federal government also disclosed that 603 persons have so far died with 2,407 others injured in what has been described as Nigeria’s worse natural disaster.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) earlier reported that 33 Nigerian states recorded flood incidents between January and August 2022. These incidents affected 508,000 people, including 372 dead. NEMA also reported at least 277 people were injured during these floods.
Addressing journalist in Abuja on Sunday, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouq noted that the FG is deeply saddened by the deverstating situation of the floods despite government warnings.
The Minister blamed the states and communities for not paying adequate attention to early warnings, commiserating with those who have lost their loved ones and means of livelihood.
According to her in response to the 2022 flood situation, she directed the Permanent Secretary to convene an emergency technical stakeholder meeting of all responsive agencies to develop an immediate response to the situation.
She assured that a high-powered delegation has been put in place to engage the state governors to activate response mechanisms as stipulated in the National Flood Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans according to the resolution of the meeting.
While promising that stakeholders will work in synergy within their respective mandates to prevent deaths or health concerns resulting from the flood, the Minister stressed that a bilateral meeting will take place next month between Nigeria and Cameroon on the periodic opening of Lagdo dam.
“We must initiate a bilateral discussion with authorities in Cameroon next month on the periodic opening the Lagdo dam. The delegation to Cameroon is to be led by the Permanent Secretary and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be requested to facilitate it.
“For a coordinated flood response protocol, the meeting agreed to implement the National Flood Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan; Accordingly, the sectoral approach to flood management at the National and Sub-National levels must be absolutely implemented” she said.
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In line with the resolution of the technical stakeholders meeting, the Minister called on state governments to invest in flood management and lead on community base flood early warning systems and also take greater responsibilities for flood preparedness and response.
Meanwhile, Engineer Mailadi Yusuf Abba Misau, the Director, Applied Meteorological Services at NIMET, has said failure to adequately prepare for climate change has worsened the disaster in this year’s flooding.
He stated this while speaking exclusively with NatureNews on Sunday.
He said in NiMET’s capacity as a government agency has done and is still doing it’s primary objective of prediction and warning.
“Several state governments and local authorities that are currently ravaged by flooding were adequately and timely warned about the impending crisis but they failed to take action”.
“If our predictions were heeded by the states, we will not have been where we are today,” said Yusuf noting that maybe this year’s flood disaster across the land would reshape their thinking of sub-national leaders in 2023.
“Frankly speaking, the state governments are not doing as much as we expect from them, otherwise, the level of devastation that happens year in year out could have been avoided or eliminated.
“We’ve been telling the state governors that the tempo of political activities they embark upon during election periods should be deployed against activities that encourage flooding.
“We’re ready to go to the grassroots to educate them on implications of flooding and other climate change related issues. They local government chairmen and councillors when trained, should be able to cascade this information and domesticate it in their own locations.
“However, when a disaster occurs, they are quick to complain and cry out to high heavens and maybe get some support from the humanitarian ministry. But in terms of ameliorating the impact of flooding before it occurs, they don’t seem to be doing much”.
In 2012, data from NEMA showed that about 1.3 million Nigerians were displaced and 431 died in what the authorities say is the worst flooding in over 40 years, with 30 of the country’s 36 states affected with a total cost of losses calculated at N2.6 trillion.
Checks by NatureNews showed that prior to the 2012 flooding disaster, there had been the famous overflowing of the Ogunpa River in Ibadan, south-west of Nigeria, in 1960, 1963, 1978 and notably 1980 when the Ogunpa floods left the city of Ibadan completely devastated.
Experts said despite global commitment to climate change, gas emission has increased by 61 percent between 1990 and 2020.
It is believed that the global environment has been upended by carbon emissions and global warming.
The impact of climate change cannot be over emphasized as the International Panel on Climate Change, a creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), has constantly advised its 195-member countries about the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, and how the impact can be mitigated.
The effect of climate change is measured in terms of how our world is becoming unrecognizable: sea levels are rising, the arctic is getting warmer, temperatures are rising, rainfall levels have changed, and nature is changing and becoming more acidic.
