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Okwe Obi, Abuja
Nigeria Hydrology Service Agency (NIHSA) has disclosed that over 204 persons died in the 2018 flooding that ravaged some parts of the country.
NIHSA added that 210, 206 persons were displaced, 82, 376 houses destroyed while 156, 672 hectares of agricultural farmlands were ravaged.
The Agency in its magazine on Annual Flood Outlook of 2019, obtained by Daily Sun, asserted that 321 roads were damaged with a total of 1, 921,026 persons generally affected, a catastrophy it attributed to “human activities.”
The Agency said it got its data from “daily, monthly and yearly rainfall records. The gridded satellite daily rainfall data available: Climate Hazards Group Infra-red Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) data archive available from 1981 to 2017 at 0.05o resolution.
“The daily potential evapotranspiration (PET) based on the data produced by the famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET). And 28 stations of daily flow records.”
NIHSA suggested that programmes to enhance resilience (insurance, compensation, economic empowerment, education and awareness); flood forecasting and warning floodplain mapping and catchment management plans; innovative building and construction schemes; enactment and enforcement of planning laws, should be implemented.
It added that “states should create retention basins for harvesting flood water downstream of major rivers where there is scarcity of groundwater thereby using this flood waters for possible groundwater recharge. By so doing, the fresh waters will not be lost to the sea to become saline water.
“Synergy among relevant agencies should be encouraged. The effective management of flood risk should be a collective responsibility of all stakeholders.”
