Friday, July 22, 2011

Policy failure in Nigeria's flood disaster management

Business Day (Nigeria): ...Here in Nigeria for example, in 2010 many cities, towns and village settlements especially those located along river banks and or ocean shorelines were seriously affected in like manner. For example, the 2011 flooding in the USA saw the mighty Mississippi river overflowing its banks to the extent that many of the Spillways and Floodgates constructed all along its course and tributaries had to be opened to allow the extremely large volumes of water to inundate many towns and cities downstream.

Again, here in Nigeria for example, the 2011floods are already here. Many human settlements; especially the mega city of Lagos and its environs and elsewhere in the country have been devastated by floods arising from unusually high torrential rainfalls falling on a single day. Thus, city and township roads were rendered impassable since the beginning of the month of July this year.

In many places the severity of the torrential rainfalls falling in a single day reached beyond 250mm! For example, if the torrential rainfall registered in the city of Lagos and its environs on July 10th, 2011 is repeated again and again in the coming months, that part of the country will look like the cities and towns downstream of the majestic Mississippi river when it overflowed its banks in June this year and flooded many of those cities and settlements downstream - all the residents; including animals of those cities and towns were completely evacuated and moved to safety elsewhere to allow the rampaging invading waters to occupy those places.

...Unfortunately, the Presidential promises are yet to be fully implemented especially with regards to the permanent repairs to the damaged federal trunk roads, bridged and culverts to date. In addition to the Presidential promises, the various states and local governments in these states and many local and international donors voluntarily provided material and financial assistance to the affected victims of the disaster....

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