Senate asks Nigerian government to avert flooding, ocean surge in coastal states

Omololu Ogunmade and Adebiyi Adedapo in AllAfrica.com via This Day (Nigeria):  As the world enters into the rainy season, the Senate yesterday asked the federal government to ensure judicious use of ecological funds by putting in place measures aimed at bringing a lasting solution to the recurrent problem of ocean surge along coastal lines in different parts of the country.

The parliament also tasked the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to send relief materials to Nigerians who have already been displaced by ocean surge in coastal areas.

The call followed a motion by Senator Emmanuel Paulker (Bayelsa Central) in which he expressed the plights of Nigerians residing in coastal communities in Bayelsa and Delta States whom he said were recently displaced by an ocean surge which submerged their communities and destroyed their source of livelihood.

According to Paulker, the surge displaced and washed away many lives in Koluama I, Koluama II, Foropa and many other communities in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State last week. He said the communities which blamed the flood on the "unmitigated impact" of an explosion and fire from Chevron's oil rig, lamented how it washed away their markets as well as properties worth billions of naira and consequently put them in a state of anguish.

The senator said the surge was caused by the failure to address Chevron's oil rig explosion and fire which he said occurred in Koluama in January 2012, recalling that such under water explosions and vibrations triggered the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which claimed 290,000 lives and affected about 14 countries along the ocean coast....

A thunderstorm brews in the Bight of Bonny off the Nigerian coast, oil rig in the foreground, shot by Swandau, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license