Averting the menace of flooding

By Mallam Musbahu Magayaki

SIR: Flooding has become a recurring phenomenon with devastating impacts on human livelihoods and infrastructural development in Nigeria. Causes include rapid population growth, poor governance, poor drainage facilities, and decaying infrastructures, lack of proper environmental planning and management strategies, the poor practice of dumping waste/refuse, and climate change coupled with inadequate preparedness.

In other words, human activities have been adjudged to be important factors in accelerating the rate of this disaster which often leaves in its wake, spread of diseases, loss of lives and destruction of properties valued in billions of naira.

In more recent years, 2011 and 2012 appear to have been the worst notably from the impact of the released of water from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon.

In many countries, rivers prone to floods are often carefully managed. Defences such as levees, bunds, reservoirs, and weirs are used to prevent rivers from bursting their banks. When these defenses fail, emergency measures such as sandbags or portable inflatable tubes are used. Coastal flooding has been addressed in Europe and the Americas with coastal defenses, such as sea walls, beach nourishment, and barrier islands.

A dike is another method of flood protection. A dike lowers the risk of having floods compared to other methods. It can help prevent damage; however, it is better to combine dikes with other flood control methods to reduce the risk of a collapsed dike.

The Netherlands is the world leader in flood control and has been battling the sea for centuries and new ways to deal with water are constantly being developed and tested. Projects such as the underground storage of water, storing water in reservoirs in large parking garages, and even something as simple as turning a playground during normal conditions into a small lake during heavy rainfall all show how the Netherlands is actively trying to combat the increasing dangers of rising sea levels.

In the UK, the Flood Act of 2010 obliges builders to landscape developments so that water from roofs and driveways seeps into open ground rather than rushing into the water system. The guidelines suggest that the ground should be able to absorb the water – a process known as infiltration. Large “detention basins” to collect rainwater and hold it as a way of managing the volume of water entering urban rivers have also proven to be useful.

I would like to urge federal and state governments to undertake a deep study of the aforementioned measures taken by the developed countries to deal with the problem. There will no doubt be useful lessons from their experiences that could be adapted to address our local challenges.  Time to spring to action is now that the rainy season is near.

• Mallam Musbahu Magayaki, Sabon Fegi, Azare, Bauchi State.