By OLUSEGUN ADENIYI

We do not seem to be paying much attention, but nothing has taken more lives or wrecked as much havoc in the last four months as flooding. This may be because the victims in most instances are the poor and vulnerable of our society. But across the country, thousands of families have become refugees due to the rains. In Jos, Mrs Indo Abdulmumini narrated her tragic experience: “I was asleep when my husband woke me up and I saw water flowing into our compound. We went into the room to carry the young boys, but we couldn’t because the wall had already collapsed. When my husband tried to enter, he discovered that the flood had taken the children. I have lost six of my children, four girls and two boys, the oldest being 13 and the smallest being 90 days old. I am now left with only two surviving children, a girl of 17 and a boy of two years.”

The story of Hussaini who lost seven children to the flood is also as pathetic as the account rendered by a 15-year-old boy named Faisal. “We tried to rush home with my father; we couldn’t pass because all roads were flooded,” he lamented. “My mother who was at home then called me on phone. I heard the voices of my younger ones screaming and crying. Suddenly, the line went dead. That was all: Our house was destroyed, and my mother Hajiya with my four younger ones have not been seen up till now.”

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I wrote the foregoing in ‘Death and the Waters Between’ on 17th July 2012, following an unprecedented flooding that left the country with heartrending stories. Sadly, the deluge of recent weeks and resulting human tragedies have surpassed that of 2012. And this time, both the rich and poor are counting the cost. As of Monday, according to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, approximately 3,219,780 persons had been affected by current floods with no fewer than 1,427,370 persons internally displaced. 612 lives have also been lost with 2,776 persons injured and 305,407 houses destroyed. In addition, 392,399 hectares of farmland have been decimated with an additional 176,852 hectares partially damaged. Yet, despite the specialised teams on ground across the country, several communities are still not accessible to ascertain the level of devastation or how to render assistance, according to the Minister.

Going by the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) ‘aggregated 2022 flood data’ made available to me, as of last Friday (21st October), all 36 states in the country have been affected by the floods, though in varying degrees. For instance, with 91 deaths, more lives have been lost in Jigawa (where 68,883 are displaced and 166,076 affected) than in any other state. But that is just one side of the story. Although Anambra recorded fewer deaths (77) by last Friday, it remains the worst-hit state with 526,215 residents displaced and another 729,046 people impacted. 2,765 houses and 15634 hectares of farmland have also been damaged in Anambra State.

It will take a long time for Bayelsa to recover from the flood. With all eight local governments practically under water, 58 deaths had been recorded in the state by last Friday with 81 injured, 219,471 displaced and another 257,913 persons affected. Meanwhile, 27,213 houses have been damaged and 46,143 hectares of farmland totally destroyed. The four deaths recorded in Imo State as of last Friday can be considered minimal, but with 105,811 hectares of farmland destroyed, the economic loss is enormous. In Rivers where 23 deaths were recorded, 66,572 hectares of farmland have been totally destroyed in the flooding that has affected 121,276 residents of the state.

In Yobe where 59 deaths were recorded by last Friday, 42,710 persons had been displaced and 24,321 others affected. With 142,755 residents of the state affected, Taraba has witnessed 57 fatalities. No death is recorded in Kogi—though one must be wary of statistics in a state where the governor controls the narrative. But the flood which at one point rendered the state capital, Lokoja impassable, has affected 471,991 persons, according to NEMA data. While Cross River State may have recorded only two deaths, 99,083 hectares of farmland have been totally destroyed with 91,276 persons displaced and another 101,391 affected. The flood has also claimed 57 lives in Borno State, displacing 30,516 people and affecting another 50,986 after destroying 15,345 hectares of farmland. In Benue where 34 deaths were recorded, 32,633 have been displaced and another 83,016 people affected.

I can go on and on with details from every state, but I believe the point is already made about the enormity of the crisis at hand. Despite their best efforts, officials of both NEMA and the federal ministry of humanitarian affairs are overwhelmed. In some states, evacuation officials are awaiting support from the military that is also overstretched by the security challenges facing the nation. Yet, from what I have gathered in recent days, this tragedy could easily be converted to opportunity if we are serious.

In ‘Echoes of Clinton’s Abuja Visit’ last week, I referenced a conversation with Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State who forwarded me the speech I excerpted for the short piece. One of the issues we discussed was the challenge of perennial flooding which Bagudu said is not beyond our capacity as a nation to handle. “Please, go and talk to Engineer Clement Nze, the Director General of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), and you will be amazed by the opportunity we are wasting.” He gave me Nze’s number and I met the NIHSA Director General at his office last Friday.

Nigeria, Nze told me, has one of the best natural drainage systems in the world due to our topography, land and location within the Niger Basin that traverses nine countries in West and Central Africa. The other Niger Basin nations are Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali and Niger Republic. The total landmass of these nine countries is about 1.5 million square kilometres with over 130 million people living within the basin. Nigeria, according to Nze, occupies approximately 30 percent of the landmass but in human population, our country accounts for as much as 80 percent. On an annual basis, Nze says that a total volume of over 200 billion cubic metres of fresh water drain into the Atlantic Ocean. He believes, and I agree with him, that this is a huge resource from nature that we could tap into. Not only would it mitigate the flooding that has become an annual problem, but it would also be a catalyst for the much-touted diversification into agriculture, help resolve some of our security challenges and aid power generation.

For a country of 200 million people, and despite our abundant water resources, it says so much about our lack of seriousness that in Nigeria we have just a little over 400 dams and reservoirs for irrigation, water supply and hydro-electric power generation. Only seven are either partially or fully dedicated to irrigation. They include the Tiga Dam in Kano, Zauro Polder project in Kebbi State, Oyan River dam in Ogun State, Kiri dam in Adamawa, Kafin Zaki dam in Bauchi, Bakolori dam in Zamfara and Goronyo dam in Sokoto. Owing to the effects of Climate Change, what we witness in recent years is a situation in which the amount of rainfall normally received in four months comes within a few days or weeks, causing extraordinary havoc because of the challenge of retention. And, according to Nze, the water that flows through our country every year can be harnessed.

What Nze suggests is the construction of Detention Basins in states like Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Nasarawa and Edo. These are artificial reservoirs in which we can collect and keep water from the flood during rainy season for use during dry season. He cited the example of Jabi Lake in Abuja, a man-made earth dam with a total surface area of about 1,300 hectares constructed by Julius Berger which now provides boat rides, fishing and tourism for Abuja residents. Most significantly, according to Nze, because of the water body, boreholes around Jabi, Gwarimpa, Life Camp and Kado have improved their yield owing to continuous recharge of the aquifers from Jabi Lake.

However, the biggest opportunity comes from the Chad basin that has for decades presented a problem. Surrounded by transboundary basins such as the Nile basin to the east, Congo basin to the south, Niger basin to the west and Nubian basin to the north, the surface area of Lake Chad has shrunk to a tenth of its initial size—from about 25,000 square kilometers in 1960 to about 1500 square kilometres today. And this has contributed significantly to the insecurity that started with insurgency in the Northeast before dovetailing into banditry in the Northwest. As a hub for fishing, farming and animal husbandry, as many as 40 million people directly rely on Lake Chad for survival. And experts believe we can deploy the annual flood to recharge it. From available reports, we may not even spend up to the equivalent of what we expend annually on fuel subsidy to actualize this idea.

The volume of water that enters our country from the Ladgo Dam in Cameroon is huge, but so are the opportunities. One of the people I spoke to is Dr Matthew E. Offodile, a consultant exploration hydrogeologist and Managing Director of Mecon Geology and Engineering Services, Jos who graduated from University of Ibadan in 1964 and is regarded as one of the foremost experts on the issue of flooding in Nigeria. At 86, Offodile having traversed the entire country, understands the terrain and the opportunities that abound if only the authorities would do the right thing.

To Offodile, the Cameroonian authorities are doing what they are supposed to do in order to avoid an even greater catastrophe. “But on our part, we do nothing to mitigate the downriver effect. We have suggested that a practical solution would be to create a dam on the upper arm of the Benue River around Yola (Adamawa State capital) to divert part of the surplus water northwards into the large area of the Chad Basin through River Yedsaram”, he said. “The large excess volume of water would serve the dual purpose of not only irrigating the large expanse of the Chad basin land but possibly refill the Lake Alo and may be extend to Lake Chad itself. This will be a purely Nigerian project which unlike the transfer from the Congo basin being suggested in some quarters, is devoid of all international encumbrances of the neighboring countries.”

Offodile suggested continuous study of the drainage network of the various hydrological basins to determine their characteristics and the volume of discharge into the major Benue and Niger channels. He also recommends desilting and rehabilitating all existing dams/reservoirs. “Unless Nigeria embarks on these major structural developments, all efforts at our annual rituals at river gauge measurements and forecasts will be postponing the evil day and in vain,” the octogenarian told me.

Meanwhile, it is important to stress that beyond the rage of nature, careless habits contribute to the flooding that we witness annually in most cities across the country. In many states, buildings have been erected on drainage channels and until they are pulled down, there will be no free flow of water into the canals. But this is a different issue altogether and at some point, we must address the critical challenge of environment and urban planning.

On a positive note, the floods that cause havoc and misery every year can be deployed for the agricultural sector, according to experts. Two crops that grow easily in Nigeria are rice and sugarcane. Both depend on water. Sugarcane is the source of ethanol which is used in the manufacturing of drugs, plastics and cosmetics, while the byproducts can also be used to generate electricity. The same goes for rice. Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Maifata, proprietor of Umza Farms in Kano, told Daily Trust last Sunday that he has been able to generate 1.5 megawatts of electricity from the byproduct of rice.

Instructively, one man has been able to generate that much electricity from byproducts of rice in his farm while, despite billions of Dollars in more than two decades, the Nigerian state has only been generating megawatts of excuses. “We have 190,000 tons per annum milling lines. Now, we have a power plant that produces 1.5 megawatts of electricity using rice husk and also by December, we will commission our oil mill which will be producing oil from the rice bran,” said Maifata who is showing what can be done in our country if we create the right environment for the private sector to thrive. “Rice is a commodity from which nothing is wasted. You use the husk, which is 20 percent of the rice to produce electricity. The rice bran, which comes after you brush and clean has 20 percent oil content … so we are putting up a plant to extract oil from the bran. This is the whole chain now about rice. Later, we will be producing silica from the ash. After you burn the rice husk, the ash will give you silica,” Maifata said.

All said, I hope those who seek our mandate in 2023 will begin to ruminate on how they can convert the flooding disaster into dividends for the country. With corpses being exhumed from cemeteries due to the flood in states like Bayelsa while farmlands, schools and hospitals are being submerged in several others, it is troubling that more and more Nigerians are joining the growing population of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Today, we are in a situation of national emergency. Sadly, there is nothing to suggest that authorities in Nigeria, at any level, appreciate that. (THISDAY)

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