The 2022 floods came in sweeping away all life in its path from North to South. Despite warnings by The Nigerian Meteorological Services NiMET, neither the Federal nor state governments had flood impact mitigation measures on ground, to safeguard life, property and investments.
NiMET and Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency, NHSA have announced since late 2022, the coming of more devastating floods in 2023.
National Point has kept its lenses on the four states which faced the devastating flood from September 2022 to early December. Delta, Bayelsa, Edo and Rivers are those states, whose residents face dangers in the imminent flood. Our correspondents have kept focus on what the states and local governments are doing to protect residents and property, as the floods will come with even greater ferocity in 2023 according to warnings.
current during the flood disaster
Like a nightmare, the flood of 2022 came and overtook many towns and communities in the Niger Delta states, flowing from the Northern states. It was an experience that many cannot forget in a hurry. In Bayelsa State, the furious flood took over everywhere, including the capital, Yenagoa.Many lives were lostand business investments swept away.
The whole area was overtaken by water leaving loss, waste and pain in its wake.
For over two months, many people were compelled to leave their homes and live in uncompleted buildings, on the roads, on the bridges, in private schools and all other places that they could lay their heads.
And now in 2023, another prediction has come with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) warning that this year’s flood will be higher and heavier than that of last year even though, there was a prediction last year without the appropriate stakeholders making plans to mitigate the impact of the 2022 flood.
Just weeks ago, Mustapha Ahmed, the director-general of the national emergency management agency, issued a warning of upcoming severe flooding this year as indicated by predictions from relevant agencies.
of persons who lost their lives in the 2022 floods in Bayelsa State.
Here Iniruo Wills of Ijaw Professionals and other committee members make presentations
At a two-day experts’ technical meeting on 2023 climate-related disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies in Abuja, Ahmed said that this had earlier been revealed in the seasonal climate predictions and annual flood outlooks by the Nigerian Meteorological agency and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NHSA).
He said, “The flood disaster in 2022 was an eye-opener. However, the agency would spread early warning messages to states and local government areas and the federal capital territory.
“We have started early this year, as we are ready for early warning and early action. We will bombard every citizen, state and local government with this information as we want them to know that it is serious and we will not keep quiet, because we want them to know that there will be flood this year.”
He further advised that those living around water channels and flood plains should take precautions.
In the same vein, the director-general of NHSA, Clement Nze, disclosed that 178 LGAs in 32 states and the FCT have been predicted to experience severe flooding in 2023.
He said, “This time, we came out early with this prediction and we expect that relevant actors, governments, and individuals will go to work. We expect that actions should be taken, especially at the sub-national levels, early enough, to mitigate the impact of flooding in the country.
Bayelsa State was however the most hit in 2022 and the state government did its best at least to save the lives of many, especially those in the hinterlands and even those within the metropolis that could not help themselves.
The Oxbow Lake was converted into a camp, while the state government fed and sheltered the displaced, not forgetting those that even gave birth there with the help of donations that came from public-spirited individuals.
In all, the state government stated that it spent close to N1 billion or more to cater for the displaced people in less than two months. In fact, it was a nasty experience that should not repeat itself.
Recently, the Bayelsa State government disclosed that it got a total of N481 million from donors during the 2022 flood.
Disclosing this in Yenagoa during a transparency briefing for the months of November, December 2022 and January/ February 2023, the technical adviser on treasury and accounts, Timipre Seipulo stated that “Donations for flood relief have continued to pour into the state coffers with N395 million in November, one N1million in December and N85million in January this year’.
In a recent discussion with the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ayibaina Duba on what the state was planning to do to mitigate the effect of the predicted flood in 2003,he said, “Let us be realistic, floods are part of the living of our people and when you find yourself in a situation like this and you want to solve it, as far as I’m concerned adhoc measures sometimes are just temporary measures. If we want to solve this problem, we need to get professionals to tell us what to do.”
Former Commissioner for Environment Bayelsa State, Iniruo Wills giving his suggestions said, “The annual flood and the misery it brings on millions of our people every year constitute one of the painful illustrations of the gross failure and lack of seriousness of governance not just in Nigeria generally but, particularly in the Niger Delta states. The flood issue is not a child’s play and there is no short cut to it. He stated further that,
“Pending when the federal government starts to act responsibly, Bayelsa State government must quickly commission the most competent consortiums of experts to produce a comprehensive flood master plan detailing short term, medium term and long term measures and projects to be undertaken. It must then execute the measures. Many short term proposals have been presented to successive Bayelsa State governors in the last ten years but, they have failed to adopt or implement them. Giving more details on the states record with flood control measures, Will made the point that,
“Every Niger Delta governor waits for the floods to come and then cries wolf and distributes some miserable relief materials. In 2014, the Dutch embassy sponsored a preliminary flood report for Bayelsa State free of charge. It was to lead to a full study, but the governor then was not forthcoming.
“While a proper flood master planning is going on, the current governor can immediately empower and release funds to the state Ministry of Environment, which is usually not funded by most governors to work with other agencies to start de-silting blocked water channels, building dykes and levees in vulnerable communities and similar interim actions.
“Also, with the repeated suffering our communities have experienced from flooding, there is no excuse for the state government not to promptly build standard multipurpose flood shelters at well assessed locations in every local government area or senatorial district. These can be put to other uses outside the flood seasons.
“The 2023 budget of the state will be a test of the state’s seriousness to redeem itself on the flood matter. On the contribution of the Niger Delta main interventionist agency in this area the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Wills declared that, “The NDDC has also failed spectacularly in this regard, especially with the hundreds of billions of naira that have evaporated into ghost desilting and related contracts in the last six years or so. The new management of NDDC can make a big difference in the region by working with not just the Bayelsa State government but, also all state governments in the Niger Delta and relevant federal and international agencies to develop and implement an integrated flood and erosion master plan. That is part of NDDC’s statutory duty. Governance cannot continue to appear as complex as space travel in Nigeria and particularly Bayelsa or Niger Delta’.
Charles Ambaiowei, an engineer, who has been part of community driven efforts since the devastating flood of 2012 and 2018, to get the governments of Bayelsa State to act on flood control and mitigation, in his reaction said “We know about the background of this past flood where predictions were made, nobody took it seriously especially the federal government. The year, 2022 was so remarkable that after the flood, I personally chaired the committee to make some interventions on flood issues as it relates to Bayelsa state and other Ijaw communities in the Niger Delta.
Of course, the Ijaw nation cuts across all the states of the Niger Delta and it is our areas that are prone to flood. Our committee work was actually in collaboration between the Nigerian society of engineers Bayelsa State branch and the Bayelsa State Elders Council.
The chairman of the Bayelsa State Elders Council is his excellency retired Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah, as he was the former deputy governor of the state and then the chairman currently of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, is Chief Sokari James. So, our work is already before the governor and the government of Bayelsa State. I’m so elated because just this morning we got a call from Dr. Patterson Ogon, who is actually the special adviser to the governor of the state on strategy and they have invited us to come make some presentations. So that will be immediately after the State House of Assembly elections. Of course we know we will not have governorship election, so any time within this March, we will engage them and from that engagement, the implementation of our recommended plan of action”.
Giving further insight into the challenges ahead, Ambaiowei said,“I will say that time is not to our advantage because we could have spent the best time in November, December, January, February, on this. You know remedial measures, we have lost some time but, then as they say its better late than never. So let’s engage and we will see the outcome. Let us at least mitigate what is coming again. It is just a prediction. Sometimes when this predictions are made, it could end up not getting to the anticipated devastation. So, we pray it should not be that terrible like that of 2022, because one of the documents we found from the records is that there is nothing in the past evaluation of about let’s say 60 years, there has not been a flood of this kind in this locality” Amabaiowei also delved into the history of floods in Bayelsa State, whose communities mostly lie below sea level,.
“I will always make reference to 1969 at least, I was a young boy, I witnessed that flood because in my home state where my house was, it was in the sitting room that I learnt to swim and when I came to build my present house as an engineer, I made some factors of safety on that very site and so when even the 2012 flood came, my house was not flooded and I had taken it that this was a success but lo and behold the 2022 flood came and I bet you, it hit me. At least my sitting room, kitchen, and my dining areas which somehow because of my engineering aesthetics I did step down in the floor level, it was flooded up to the skirting, whereas when you enter other areas that have usually been susceptible, theirs was far worse.
“So it’s all an engineering solution to this possible issue. It’s just our level of seriousness to deal with it that has always been called to question. And if one may apportion blames, the greater share goes to the federal government because the federal government seems to have done nothing by way of a comprehensive scheme to deal with these issues over the years. Even the few things that have been worked on, they just confined them and they are rotting away. We went as far back as to dig up various reports by the Netherlands engineering consulting company. We even dug up another effort that was done for the federal government of Nigeria through corporations by the democratic people’s republic of Korea who sent in a flood delegation. All these things nobody had followed them up to implement. But our own worry is that we have got regional bodies like the NDDC whose mandate is clear. They don’t even have a desk in the NDDC structure that deals with coastal engineering. Flood comes from rivers, if as NDDC as a body, you don’t even have river or coastal engineering desk so what are you up to?
“Then, when you come to the state governments, your people are suffering this thing every year so what meticulous approach have you used? In fact, let’s call to question where is the level of inter-operation and interrelationship that states of the Niger Delta have galvanized themselves to even mount pressure on the NDDC or on the federal government.
“So, these are clear lapses that the state governments should be alive to their responsibilities. Then, you come to the local government and even to the communities whether you like it or not these things always begin from communities.
“You don’t wait for everything to come from entities that are far separated from you. In our communities, we have the local understanding so how has the community development councils been able to help their people.
“When the flood comes, you see the Community Development Committees CDC would be nowhere to be found. While they were looking for people from somewhere else to come and help them. Why don’t they be the first people who are responding to evacuate the elderly, those who are not as strong as we are? Why don’t the CDC people be the first respondents to be carrying their community indigenes to some safe dryer grounds. They just do nothing and if they bring food from federal, you will be the first to now want to collect all the alleviation materials’.
