The flash flooding that swept away over 200 persons, at the last count, and displaced over 4,000 residents of Mokwa, Niger State, is a tragedy of monumental proportions. We deeply sympathize with the victims of this disaster. The pains of losing loved ones suddenly and in such catastrophic circumstances are better imagined than experienced. ‘He who feels it knows it,’ the legendary Jamaican Reggae musician, Jimmy Cliff, aptly encapsulated this sort of niggle in one of his hits.
Yet, sadly enough, the tragedy, engendered by heavy rains which began overnight Wednesday, May 28, into the following day, is needless, because it could have been avoided or at least, the impact could have been drastically mitigated. But the insouciant nature in many a Nigerian has largely been contributory to many of the flood disasters that have continued to exact devastating tolls on human lives in Nigeria.
The Mokwa tragedy is an exemplification of the fallout of environmental neglect generally and the predilection of some of our states for fire brigade approach to flood preventive measures. For one, flooding disasters are hardly fortuitous.
Weather forecasting/management agencies such as the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the National Hydrological Services Agency (NHSA) as well as the Federal Ministry of Water and Sanitation have always sounded yearly and periodic warnings at the onset of the raining season about the intensity of flooding to be expected, listing potentially vulnerable states and zones.
They normally warn ahead whenever there would be extreme weather conditions in the country. Exacerbated by climate change, these conditions often lead to frequent and intense rainfall within spells of time.
The bodies also often release some precautionary measures which concerned states should take to avoid untoward consequences. Experts have always advised that environmental bulwarks or buffers such as wind breakers and other erosion control measures around tributaries be put in place. This is in addition to ensuring more efficient management of drainage infrastructure to tame the expected fury of the elements.
A particularly recurring admonition from the experts in these periodic flood outlooks is the need to temporarily evacuate residents in serious flood-prone zones, in the event of high velocity of rains, to relatively safer zones.
These warnings are, however, either ignored or haphazardly attended to in many of the flood-prone states. As a result, the authorities are often caught napping whenever the heavens open up and begin to pound the earth in torrential deluge. They are always reactive instead of being proactive to flood control.
In Mokwa, as in many other areas, the drainage systems are poorly managed, thus making them vulnerable to flooding. The inveterate non-challance of many residents tends to aggravate the situation. They clog the channels with all sorts of waste— ‘pure water’ sachets, bread nylons, other disused and grumpy stuffs.
Some residents in many areas convert the drainage channels into refuse dumps outright. In many places, structures are erected on flood-prone landscapes in the face of haphazard urban developments resulting from official tardiness in the implementation of building laws and regulations. Thus, impeded rain torrents are often forced to veer off course in many places, in most cases, resulting in flooding.
The case of Mokwa, an important market and transit hub linking different parts of the country, assumed that magnitude because the floodwaters washed away four local bridges, including the main popular Mokwa rail bridge that connects the North and the South, thus severing traffic between the two.
The overwhelming tidal wave resurging from the collapse, accentuated by a reportedly burst dam in the area, suddenly emptied its surging volley into the community, sweeping away everything, including houses and humans. As a result, trucks which transport goods, including foodstuffs, livestock and perishable items such as pepper, tomatoes, onions, among others, are now trapped in the mesh.
The Mokwa community is in total dysphoria. The people are seething in the cauldron of horrific degradation. The toll on infrastructural devastations, business dislocations and human lives is hellish. Whole families were reportedly wiped out in some cases by the ferocious floodwaters. So devastating was the impact that bodies of many of the victims were picked up as far as 10 kilometers away from the scene of the flooding.
The local economy and commerce of the area have become comatose. Close to 300 houses were destroyed and the livelihoods of over 500 households have been upended. Over 1,000 persons are still unaccounted for, as horror-striken relations continue to search for their missing loved ones.
Mercifully, the Federal Government has provided some succour. President Bola Tinubu has directed the rebuilding of the collapsed bridges, while a temporary alternative route is being worked out for the resumption of mass transit in the area pending the completion of the bridges. The President has also ordered the release of N2 billion to reconstruct the buildings destroyed by the flooding. This is highly responsive and commendable of Mr President.
The Mokwa tragedy is the latest in the flurry of such disasters that the country has continued to experience. Many states, including Adamawa, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Jigawa, Benue, Kogi, Delta, Bayelsa, among others, have one time or the other experienced the fury of flooding, with varying devastating consequences.
The Borno case, which occurred in September, last year, bore some resemblance with that of Mokwa. It was triggered when the Alau Dam, impounding Ngadda River, suddenly burst its bank and in a ferocious surge, seeped into the state capital, burying more than half of the city.
The dam, located in the Konduga community, about 20 kilometers(12 miles)to Maiduguri city center, was said to have caved in due to the overwhelming surge of water from Ndagga River, which is a major tributary from River Yedzaram, as a result of heavy rainfalls. Alau Dam was built in 1986 to help Maiduguri farmers to practise irrigation.
The massive flooding, described by the authorities as the worst in that area in three decades, left buildings and infrastructure, including water-cum-sewage systems and bridges in utter ruins.
The flooding killed at least 150 persons. And this is a conservative estimate because an unaccountable number of children were reportedly swept away by the furious floodwaters, while many others drowned. The state government said about one million people were altogether affected one way or the other, 414,000 of whom were displaced.
One of the severest flood tragedies had occurred between May and October, 2022. The flooding was caused by heavy rainfall and the release of water from the Lagos Dam in Cameroon. According to reports, the disaster, which affected 33 states across the country, resulted in the death of about 612 people and the displacement of 1.4 million.
Another horrifying flood catastrophe also ravaged the nation in 2012. The flooding, which swept across at least 30 states, 12 of which were severely affected, dispatched 363 persons to the great beyond. Over 2.1 million people, most of whom spent a considerable time at Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps across the country, were displaced, while about seven million people were affected one way or the other. About N2.5 trillion, according to the National Emergency Agency (NEMA), might have been lost to the floods.
To put paid to the recurrent colossal waste of human lives and resources, or at least mitigate the incessant losses, we admonish state governments, especially in high risk zones and response agencies like NEMA to be more heedful henceforth to the warnings from NiMET and NHSA.
Let them be more proactive in their flood-control measures by resorting to mechanized channelisation of huge drainages and tributaries in their domains, in addition to other flood control measures recommended by experts, to contain the huge waters from flash floods that uproot the ‘uprootables,’ destroying lives and properties.
The states are also enjoined to always judiciously utilize the ecological funds being received from the Federation Account from time to time as well as periodic ecological handouts’ from the Federal Government. A sum of N108 billion flood bailout was given to all the 36 states in September, last year, when the Borno tragedy occurred.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who announced the bailout in Niger State then, said some severely affected states like Borno, Sokoto, Niger, Bayelsa and Jigawa, would get more bailout funds to fight the menace of flooding. The Federal Government is being reminded to make good its promise to this end, if it has not done so already.
We urge Their Excellencies not to be tempted to divert these funds but use them for the purposes they are appreciated. We also caution our people generally to slough off their non-challance to environmental neatness, especially the invidious habit of throwing all sorts of dirts into drainage channels.
The Mokwa and Borno cases were aggravated by burst dams, while bridge collapse contributed heavily to the former. To this end, let the relevant authorities conduct essential integrity tests on all major dams and strategic bridges across the country with a view to reinforcing or rebuilding them, as the case may be.
In the final analysis, let the authorities concerned heed the experts’ advisory to always evacuate residents in severe flood-prone areas whenever torrential rains become abnormal. Let us avert or mitigate the recurrent, preventable deaths and losses through flooding.