THE agonising picture of a 100-year-old woman, Mrs. Kutsuwe Kwenbe, who was among hundreds of people displaced by last month’s devastating flood in Benue State elicited nationwide attention. It captured the pain and havoc caused by floods in many parts of the country in recent months.
Mrs. Kwenbe, who celebrated her centenary age days earlier before the ravaging flood wiped out her joy, is currently taking shelter in one of the Internally Displaced Persons camps in the state capital, Makurdi. It is the third time she would be a victim of flood since 2009 when her House at Gyado village was destroyed, and in 2012 when another flood caused by the opening of Lagdi Lake Reservoir in Cameroon.
Mama Kwenbe’s story is a wake-up call for government to be proactive in emergency situations such as flood and erosion, which have devastated communities, displaced persons and disrupted economic activities.
In Benue State alone, the August 27, 2017 flood displaced about 110,000 people and destroyed over 2,769 households in 24 communities, according to the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). Also, early this year, flood ravaged Lagos State’s most expensive neighbourhoods of Lekki, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Victoria Island and rendered many homeless. Also, in Kebbi State and few other states in the North, flooding has caused untold misery to many people and communities and destroyed houses and farmlands. It is in this regard that we welcome the assurances from the presidency of timely release of ecological fund to states affected by the recent flood to address the challenges the menace has posed in their localities. Until now, the Federal Government had delayed the release of the N1.6bn set aside for such emergencies.
The assurance for the timely release of the fund came last week from the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu. According to Shehu, the Buhari administration will not abandon its humanitarian obligations to alleviate the distress of flood victims, even in the face of paucity of funds to manage large-scale and complex emergencies. On the ecological fund, the presidential aide said it was the right of the people to demand judicious use of the fund. Under the present arrangement, states receive 1.4 percent of the ecological fund, federal government 1 percent, and the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) 24 percent, from the Federation Account. However, many states complain that they have not received such financial assistance.
We, therefore, urge the presidency to keep to its word by promptly releasing the funds to the affected states. It is high time we started a proactive management of floods. Assurances are not enough. Paying heed to the warnings and cautionary measures from the meteorological authorities is very vital in containing flood and the consequences.
As a matter of fact, flooding has become a perennial challenge in Nigeria with little proactive response. We recall the devastating flood of 2012 in many parts of the country in which about 2 million people were reportedly rendered homeless and 365 persons dead. The economy lost about N2.6trn during the period.
Financial Derivatives Company has affirmed that frequent flooding has resulted in food index inflation, rising to 10.2 percent in recent months. It has also led to high transportation of harvested products as a result of impassable roads. Besides, it has affected the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate now estimated at 6.5 percent, compared to 6.85 last year.
This, experts say, will negatively affect economic activities, particularly agriculture and a reduction of crude oil production by 500,000 bpd, according to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). The frequent flooding in the country has made the dredging of Rivers Benue and Niger a matter of national priority, as well as the construction and good management of dams. Beyond this, there is the need to keep our urban drainage systems clean so that water can flow freely when it rains. Relevant authorities should enlighten the people through mass media on the need to dump refuse only at designated areas and avoid littering the streets and blocking the drainages.