Flooding: The Time to Act is Now

The perennial problem of flooding is once again here. Recently, we witnessed its damaging effects in different parts of the country with the worst hit being Lagos, Rivers and Niger states. We have seen floods of very frightening dimensions affecting homes, offices, farmlands, businesses and sweeping away valuables and obstructing human traffic by rendering roads and streets impassable. It has indeed had devastating social and economic impacts. Urban flooding caused by intense, prolonged rainfall is one of the hazards in modern cities and towns.

Such flooding often happens with little warning and in areas not prone to flooding hence, the difficulty in its management and predictability. Whilst intense and/or prolonged rainfall also takes place in rural areas, urban (pluvial) flooding is a predominantly urban problem. Its effects are most pronounced and damaging in urban areas.

Generally flooding could be viewed as the disturbance of the environmental health and sanitation of an area. This is so because when we talk of environmental sanitation of an area, we are talking of adequate sewage and refuse collection; a well-planned housing system, provision of drinking water, control of pests like cockroaches, rats and the likes as well as protection of edibles. These are the very plans and services that flooding disrupts.

 Urban flooding is usually due to the high proportion of tarmacked and paved surface which limit water infiltration and increase the amount of water running off the ground surface as well as its speed. This is exacerbated by the fact that natural drainage routes are often altered or blocked in cities which obstructs water flow. Besides that, the growing urban population and degree of urbanisation puts great pressure on existing drainage systems thereby increasing the likelihood of them being overwhelmed.

Experts have predicted a significant increase in urban flood in future as a result of climate change and demographic shifts. The primary effects of flooding includes loss of life, damage of buildings and other structures including bridges, sewage systems, roads, transport infrastructure, power stations, destruction of water treatment plants etc. The hazardous nature of flood water can best be explained by an examination of its contents. Flood sweeps through the homes of snakes and other reptiles flushing them and their eggs as well as other poisonous substances hitherto buried underground into the flooding water. Floods also wash away pools of stagnant water containing algae and loads of micro-organisms. Others include industrial waste which probably has not been properly and thoroughly disposed. When such flood water sweeps into people’s living rooms and open playing spaces; they carry these micro-organism along destroying the physical and biological properties of good housing. Architects and other experts have pointed out that continuous flooding wrecks the foundation of buildings and when such buildings collapse, they usually lead to loss of lives. Again flood water contains millions of dangerous micro-organisms that can penetrate the skin and infect humans when people wade through such contaminated water. Infact, there have been reported cases of people having some  blood sucking worms or leeches stuck in their legs while wading through flooded neighborhoods. Again, flood water contamination through mixtures of harmful materials from sewages, filled up latrines, effluent from leaches  in nearby refuse dumps and poisons industrial wastes,  etc have often increased risks of disease outbreaks like dysentery, typhoid and cholera. Flooding can also cause food shortages as floods destroy plants, farmlands as well as disrupt day to day activities leading to low productivity of the labour force. Generally floods retard general productivity and development. It also increases the risk of road accidents and quite a number of people die from drowning.

In our part of the country Abia, Aba has for years been a major flashpoint of flooding. Infact the second republic Governor of Old Imo State Chief Sam Mbakwe between 1979 and 1983 became famous as a weeping Governor on account of his relentless campaign to draw federal attention to Ndiegoro flood disaster. The Ndiegoro flood is on record as being one of the earliest flood disaster points in the country. While there has not been much federal assistance to mitigate it, other flash points have since joined. They include the Uratta/Omuma axis, the Ogbor-Hill area, the Owerri-Aba road axis and the Ohanku Obohia axis. Infact, the entire Enyimba city could have been in the news as the number one flood disaster area and not Port Harcourt, Lagos, Yenegoa or Suleija if not for the experience, hard work, commitment of the present crop of the leadership of Abia State Environmental protection Agency Aba zone. Such team of course acquired their experience and tutelage under the   present Governor of Abia State who was their boss before he left to run for the governorship elections in 2014. We are highlighting this experience because we believe that other states in Nigeria who are in similar situation like us can learn some useful lessons on how we have managed to cope and mitigate the problem. I will also mention the fact that before this present crop of leaders came on board under the leadership of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, apart from the flood problem, the city of Aba acquired notoriety for the garbage heaps that dotted its landscape. Dr. Ikpeazu infact acquired his initial popularity from his leadership of our agency as the deputy general manager Aba zone. It was under him that Aba became clean again. We are sustaining and expanding that vision. How did we manage to achieve the feat of mitigating the flood problem and running a relatively clean city? The answer is simple. A clear commitment, hard work and resourcefulness in the application of resources and of course, the support we have been receiving from the state government. Put in concrete terms, the achievements have been based on a 24-hour refuse disposal system, the massive disilting of all blocked drainage pipes in the city, an aggressive citizen education on appropriate ways of disposing wastes and lastly, an aggressive sanitation law enforcement through the establishment of sanitation courts. We also have to mention the provision of road infrastructure by the state government in areas that matter most and a general disposition by our Governor under whose watch the architecture of what we are doing was drawn to see his baby succeed.

The Journey has not been easy. The floods are still with us, but we are coping with it as much as our resources can manage. Aba is not yet an Eldorado but people don’t talk about its garbage heaps again.

Checkmating flooding and managing waste requires a lot of effort and eternal vigilance. The job has no room for laxity. From our practical experience, it is a problem that requires the injection of enormous resources that is clearly beyond the means of most state governments. It is this that calls for the intervention of the Federal government if most of our cities will be saved from the problem of flooding that has the potential of reversing most of our development initiatives.

 Above all, the solution to the problem also requires synergy of efforts amongst Environmental protection managers, city planners, law makers and other relevant policy makers.

Since it has been predicted that intense flood is one of the fall out of climate change and demographic shifts, the time to act to mitigate it is now. Tomorrow might be late.

– Hon. Roland Nwakanma is Deputy General Manager, Abia State Environmental Protection Agency