Disruptive, fatal flooding in Nigeria

Nigerian Tribune: Looming danger and threats of flooding in some states, occasioned by downpour, earlier predicted by stakeholders in weather management,  manifested more on Wednesday, as eight persons were confirmed dead after a torrential rain wreaked havoc in Kogi, while more than 40 villages were sacked in Kwara and Jigawa states.

Besides, more than 4,700 inhabitants of communities in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State, namely Bele, Emi,  Faigi, Tswatako, Patako, Tada, Shonga, Edogi Dukun, Yemagi, among others, were also rendered homeless due to a heavy rain yesterday.

Similarly, over 3,200 hectares of rice plantation under the authority of Tada-Shonga Irrigation Scheme in Edu Local Government Area, also in Kwara have been washed away by flood.

These developments came as the Federal Government raised the alarm over imminent food crisis in the country, considering the continued destruction of various hectares of farmlands in some states reputed to be large producers of arable crops in the South and northern parts of the country.

...The deputy governor, who is also the chairman of the State Emergency Management Agency, remarked “What we have lost is billions of naira. How do you do the evaluation of buildings that have been submerged in the state? A lot of havoc was wreaked in the hinterlands. As we are losing buildings, we are also losing farmlands, washed away in many local governments. The extent of damage and loss could be more than that.”...

Livestock grazing on an island of the Niger River (in Niger, from a bridge in Niamey), shot by ILRI/Stevie Mann, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license