Nigeria’s Cities Are At Severe Risk From Climate Change. Time To Build Resilience
By Kamoru Kayode Lasisi
Kanempress 4th November, 2023
Nigeria’s population is on the upsurge. By 2030, more than 60% of the country’s population will be living in cities. As the country’s population continues to grow, so does its environmental crisis across multiple ecological zones.
In the Northern part, the wind erosion that has swept away houses and farms has intensified the effects of deforestation, drought, over-grazing, and desertification. In many of the towns along the Sahelian Zones, the climate crisis is releasing increasing desertification. In addition, states along the country’s coastal region are also in the ‘dip’. The consistent waves, flooding, and climate change-induced sea level rises have led millions of people to “count their loss”. In the middle belt region of Nigeria, gully erosion and flooding are compelling people to leave their ancestral homes to settle in Internally-Displaced People Camps that scatter across the region.
In the Southern region, flash and seasonal flooding caused by climate change are ruining cities. In August 2011, Ibadan, one of Nigeria’s populous cities, witnessed historic flooding caused by an all-time high of 187.5mm rainfall and indiscriminate dumping of solid wastes on water channels. This eventually left over one thousand people dead and destroyed properties worth millions of naira. Before this historic flooding, the city had already witnessed varying degrees of flooding in areas along the Ogunpa and Kudeti streams in the city in 1955, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1978 1980, with the most recent in 2011. Since then, the state has continued to witness flash floods caused by environmental degradation and heavy rains.
Every year, increasing sea levels in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city capital, almost always lead to seasonal flooding in the Lekki, Ikoyi, Epe, and some parts of the Mainland areas in the state. Its impacts on the country’s most populous city are far-reaching, as business owners and residents count their loss, the major roads are not also left unaffected as they are worn in many places, and the poorly-constructed asphalt on the road are stripped to the red earth beneath, while residents seek refuge in designated camps. In 2021, Jigawa, Bauchi and Adamawa states in the North-East region of Nigeria were also inundated by flood which evicted over 380 households and left more than 20 people dead. Already, flooding in the country in 2022 has displaced more than half a million people, according to the National Emergency Agency (NEMA). The Nigerian Metrological Agency (NiMet), in its September 2022 flooding outlook, noted that places that are along the course of River Niger and Benue have higher chances of experiencing flooding due to their present status. In August, states like Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna, Jigawa, Bauchi, Kano, Borno, Gombe, and Nasarawa recorded over 300mm (rainfall), a figure which represents over 25% of the long-term normal of the states in one month, this positioned them for an impending disaster as high-risk states as the year winds down.
On 17 October, the flooding in Northern, and some parts of South Eastern, Nigeria entered the fourth week. While the number of casualties is yet to be known, houses have been underwater and citizens have been displaced.
Largely caused by the release of excess water from the Lagdo dam reservoir in the Republic of Cameroon on September, and torrential rainfall in the North-East, North-Central and Parts of South-Eastern part of the country, this flooding has put states along the course of River Niger and Benue at risk of flooding. The situation has further deteriorated with the wave of displacement and humanitarian crisis in the crisis-ridden northeast Nigeria. According to the International organization for Migration (IOM), there is urgent need for humanitarian assistance as over 15,000 internally displaced persons now scramble for shelter after their camps were destroyed by flooding.
Economically, analysts and social commentators are forecasting acute food shortage due to the negative impact caused by the flooding. Several reports have already confirmed that Olam Farm, a $140 million investment and Nigeria’s largest farmland of around 10,000 hectares in Nasarawa – one of the flooded states – has been taken over by this flood. Despite an intense effort from the Olam Farm to subvert the flooding, the farm’s 57 km dykes which were meant to prevent the farm from being flooded were broken thereby giving way for the running to submerge the 4,400 km hectare of rice currently on the farm.
With this huge loss, there might be a hike in the price of rice — one of the most consumed foods in the country. Currently, the movement of goods and important valuables has also been disrupted by the flooding as major roads in Lokoja, Kogi State capital remain flooded. This invariably has made movement from the North Central part to the Southern region of the country impossible for motorists and travellers. Most unexplainable is the adverse effect of the flooding on small and medium-scale farmers in this region. In Benue, the food basket of the nation, farmers are already ruing the loss of their produce and are now seeking government support. In Adamawa, another state along the course of River Benue, it is alarming that 27,800 households and 89,342 hectares of farmlands have been affected by the flood. In Anambra, the number of flood victims is increasing daily as the flooding expands to more communities in the south-eastern state.
