July 07, (THEWILL) – Last Thursday, the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, sympathised with residents over the previous day’s downpour that left hundreds stranded and many areas submerged besides a few recorded deaths. When he alluded to the fact that nature had taken its full course on the state on that day, he was merely stating the obvious.
Wahab said, “I will start by saying to Lagosians, ‘We are sorry for the inconvenience caused due to nature’s course yesterday morning.”
According to John Adeyinka Adebayo, a retired professor of Applied Geology at the Federal University of Technology, Akure in Ondo State, that is the true situation of things.
“It is going to get worse because of climate change. A geological process is ongoing. The circle has started and human beings are unfortunately aiding the circle by burning fossil fuel, wood and so on. So, the problem is going to increase. With the melting of ice in the North pole, the sea level will continue to rise and in turn raise the water level on land. It is a geological phenomenon. That is why states like Lagos that are close to the Atlantic Ocean and few metres above sea level will continue to be flooded, though the impact can be mitigated by proactive action,” Professor Adekoya told THEWILL on Friday.
Explaining further, Adekoya said that the melting of ice in places like Iceland in the North pole is becoming rapid as a result of the increased volume of carbon dioxide released in the air due to human activity.
“The carbon dioxide does not allow heat to escape, thus leading to the gradual increase of temperature in the air which causes water to evaporate and precipitate as rain,” he noted.
Already, the Federal Government is not leaving things to chance. The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Joseph Utsev, last Thursday in Abuja warned that river flooding is expected, starting from this month.
He called on the states and local government councils to step up efforts to avert flood-related disasters in their domains as “we approach the peak of the flooding season.
“At the national level, some states have started experiencing some level of flooding and its associated disaster as of April this year. So far, more than three states such as Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have experienced high levels of flooding, with several casualties recorded, including displacement of people and loss of properties,” Utsev lamented.
Interestingly, the minister said there was no release of water yet from any of the dams within and outside Nigeria. For Kainji and Jebba Dams on River Niger, he said water is still impounded into their reservoirs. According to him, 20 states are likely to be impacted by anticipated heavy flooding, including the FCT. They are Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Adamawa, Benue, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Jigawa, Kogi, Kebbi, Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Nasarawa, Ondo, Ogun, Rivers and Taraba.
DOUBLE DANGER AHEAD
Unlike in previous years when flooding was a major headache for flood-prone states and their citizens, this year’s recurrence will be compounded by Cholera disease which is typically contracted from water supplies.
According to Utsev, the increasing level of flooding and continuous rainfall may worsen the spread of cholera in the country. His warning came a day after the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Jide Idris sounded the same alarm.
Dr Idris, who attributed the Cholera outbreak to the ingestion of contaminated food and water, expressed the fear that flooding would heighten the spread of the disease because of factors, such as open defecation, inadequate toilet facilities and poor sanitation. He disclosed that a total of 63 deaths and 2,102 suspected cases have already been recorded as of Wednesday, July 3, 2024, since the outbreak of the disease.
“Clearing of blocked drainage systems and canals, replications of people living along waterways and states and local governments, are encouraged to desilt river channels and canals in their respective constituents, to collect runoff water is part of the recommendation file for flood motifs,” he advised.
Confirming that the death toll from the spreading cholera outbreak had risen to 63, and 2,102 suspected cases in 122 local government areas in 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory, he said that about 90 per cent of the cases were recorded in 10 states, with seven of them in the southern region.
Alarmingly, many of these affected states are flood-prone: Lagos, Bayelsa, Abia, Zamfara, Bauchi, Katsina, Cross River, Ebonyi, Rivers, and Delta.
CAUSES
Apart from the remote cause of climate change identified by Prof Adekoya, the immediate causes include blocked canals, drainages and waterways by either buildings or sewage, even as he expressed the country’s capacity to curtail further spread despite the challenges posed by the culture of open defecation.
Disclosing the challenge posed by open defecation to the spread of the Cholera, Idris said that only 123, which is 16 per cent, of 774 LGAs in Nigeria are free of open defecation. Apart from Jigawa, being Nigeria’s only open defecation-free state, more than 48 million Nigerians practice open defecation.
Inadequate and existing toilet facilities are not well maintained, even in many government facilities, he said, adding that 11 per cent of schools, six per cent of health facilities, four per cent of motor parks and markets, have access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene services in the country. He also listed other challenges, including waste management practices, food, environmental and personal hygiene practices, as well as a capacity gap among healthcare workers at the state and LGA levels.
Other challenges that he identified included poor regulation on the construction of soak-away pits and boreholes; poor regulation of food vendors and commercial water supply, which compromises poor hygiene standards; inadequate implementation and enforcement of public nuisance law and other relevant public health laws are some other challenges. Delayed disease reporting by states and local government councils also compounds the problem.
REMEDY
Professor Adekoya said that though governments have no control over global warming and multilateral agreements on climate change are designed to reduce the causative factors, urged the authorities to plan with policies that cut down carbon dioxide and prolong life and property.
“Places like Lagos may get submerged in the future, but that is something that may take thousands of years to happen. So, we need to do something to ameliorate the situation.”
For immediate measures, he suggested that drainages and canals must be cleared regularly, waterways should not be bridged, people must be made to respect and obey the relevant laws, while those on flooded areas heed government calls to relocate to higher grounds.
For long-term measures, he advised that drastic action must be taken to avoid use of fossil fuels and heavy investment made on green energy, solar and wind power and electric cars.
Dr Idris, who said the Federal Government had demonstrated a strong political will to control the outbreak of Cholera with an inter-ministerial cabinet committee established to support the response efforts, called on the citizenry to embrace the knowledge and practice of basic hygiene, such as hand washing, proper defecation and general sanitary habits.
He disclosed that the agency had initiated the National Cholera Multi-Sectoral Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to coordinate what he described as a robust response to nationwide cholera cases, adding that the NCDC activated the EOC after conducting a dynamic risk assessment.
According to him, the dynamic risk assessment was conducted by subject matter experts on the cholera outbreak situation in Nigeria last week in response to rapidly increasing cholera cases.
He said, “The subject matter experts were drawn from relevant Ministries (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Water Resources, etc.), Departments, Agencies, stakeholders, and major partners. The outcome of the risk assessment placed the country at “High Risk” of increased risk of cholera transmission and impact”.
Nigeria as a country that produces petroleum and begins to de-emphasis dependence on those products because they generate additional carbon dioxide, Professor Adekoya canvassed. “Solar, wind power and other forms of green energy that produce no harm to the environment are the way to go,” he said.
FOOD INSECURITY
Professor Adekoya also contended that potential disasters lay ahead as unchecked flash floods often affect the fertility of the soil by washing away the topsoil which is the richest part of the soil containing organic matter and other crop nutrients and deposits.
Confirming this possibility, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) in June 2024 reported that flooding alongside high food prices, conflict and insecurity were key drivers of food insecurity in Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, South Sudan and Somalia. Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics said recently that “food inflation rate hit a record high of 40.66 per cent in May 2024, surpassing the previous month’s 40.53 increase. This surge represents the largest year-on-year increase in food prices since records began in 1996.”
Amos Esele is the Acting Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
