By Obinna Odogwu
Nigeria has faced a series of flood disasters in the past few years. And after each occurrence, many lives are lost even as properties worth several millions of Naira are destroyed. Last year, flood disasters affected 217 Local Government Areas across 34 states of the federation, according to data from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The data further revealed that the flooding impacted a total of 1,373,699 people, with 740,734 people displaced and 321 fatalities recorded. It further revealed that 2,854 individuals sustained varying degrees of injuries even as thousands of hectares of cultivated farmland were either submerged or completely destroyed.
In 2023, NEMA announced that about 33,983 people were affected by flooding in different parts of the country. It said that as of August 9 that year, the data it collated showed that 10 states were affected by the floodwaters.
The agency said that 7,353 persons were displaced, 75 injured, even as five people lost their lives to the natural disaster.
The data, which further showed that 1,679 houses were damaged, added that 866 hectares of farmlands were totally destroyed. Nigeria’s 2022 flooding killed 662 people and injured 3,174 others. It displaced a total of 2,430,445 individuals.
For that of 2012, a total of 363 people were killed, about 2.3 million people displaced and 597,476 houses damaged, according to NEMA.The agency said that Nigeria lost over N2.6 trillion to the huge flood that swept through 30 of the 36 states in the country in 2012, adding that over seven million people were affected.
This country cannot continue like this. While the Federal Government cannot or may not be able to stop flooding, it can at least determine the extent to which it can affect its citizens whenever it occurs. It can even, with the aid of modern technologies, put the floodwaters to the right use by harvesting them for agricultural purposes, power generation and some others.
The people themselves can help the government by supporting its good policies and actions targeted at addressing or ending the continually recurring flood disasters.
Many people had expected that after the 2012 flooding that wreaked serious havoc across the country, the Federal Government, working closely with the sub-national governments, would have taken decisive actions to put the now recurring weather events in check.
Recently, the Federal Government warned that 1,249 communities across 176 Local Government Areas in 33 states and the FCT are at high risk of flooding this year. The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, gave the warning in Abuja during the official presentation of the 2025 Annual Flood Outlook (AFO) by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA).
The agency’s forecast shows that an additional 2,187 communities in 293 LGAs across 31 states and the FCT are expected to experience moderate flood risk.
States identified in the high-risk category include: Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, the FCT, Gombe and Imo.
Others are: Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara.
It is not enough for the government to issue warnings about impending flood disasters every year without taking concrete actions to forestall future occurrence.
The dredging of major waterways across the country, experts say, has become very important at this time in order to create more room for the accommodation of more volumes of water in the rivers, lakes and others during rainy seasons.
The government can deploy water harvesting technologies to channel excess waters to recharge shrinking rivers and lakes nationwide.
It should see to it that nobody builds on, or blocks waterways across the country for whatever reason.
For the people living in flood-prone areas, the government should make adequate arrangements early enough and move them to safer grounds before the floodwaters arrive.
The people, on their part, should complement the government’s efforts by clearing or desilting drainage channels and smaller waterways in their various communities to allow for a free flow of water especially now that the rains have returned.
Importantly, there is also a need for accountability. The Federal and state governments should account for the money it approved or appropriated for the purposes of addressing flood challenges in the country.
In September 2024, Vice President Kashim Shettima revealed that the Federal Government approved the sum of N3 billion for each of the 36 states to tackle natural disasters such as flooding.
Shettima made the revelation when the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, visited him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja to commiserate with him over the flood that submerged Maiduguri following the collapse of Alau dam.
Has the money been released to them? If so, what have they done with it? What about the previous funds released for the purposes of curbing such natural disasters? What about the funds the state governments approved for themselves for that same purpose, how were they spent? Answers to these posers have become important at a time like this.
• Odogwu writes via [email protected]