A chartered engineer at Accord Engineering Limited, Benjamin Olamijulo, tells GODFREY GEORGE measures to be put in place to mitigate the ravaging floods in the country
Since June 2022, floods caused by torrential rains have swept through large swathes of land in 33 of the country’s 36 states. In September, the situation worsened following the opening of the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon. How do you assess the situation as an expert?
This is not the first time that this is happening. The two major rivers, which transverse the length and breadth of Nigeria – River Niger and River Benue – actually define what our landscape is. So, 50 per cent of our land mass is under the basin of these two great rivers, and this makes us susceptible to flooding if these rivers are not properly managed. Climatic change is not making things easier because any abuse of these basins will aggravate the disaster-prone environment itself and the result is more high-intensity rainfalls. The rainy season is becoming unpredictable as it is extending beyond the regular period. Last year, it rained all the way up till December. What this means is that the dry period when the ground loses some of its water is no more there. So, each time it rains, the ground that is already water-laden will be further burdened. The result is that we find a lot more swampy areas, precipitating flooding when rains become unrelenting.
Another issue is that there is an abuse of the environment through sand dredging. Throughout the length and breadth of Rivers Niger and Benue, people dig sand for different purposes. Naturally, what any river does is create its own boundaries. It creates a natural compartment at the edges, which is all the sharp sand that people see at those edges and are dredging for construction purposes, thereby loosening up the boundaries. And so, immediately there is a little overflow, the natural boundaries that the rivers have created over the years will be removed, making the water to overflow its bounds or the basin. These rivers also flow across to other countries. The best one can do is to share information on the various developments. No one country has control over what another sovereign country does. When Cameroon built the Lagbo Dam, Nigeria should have responded by creating a buffer whenever excess water from Lagbo Dam is discharged. The tendency is that when one creates a dam it will be used as a buffer during the dry season, so one can irrigate. But at some point, at the peak of the rainy season, the dam will have excess water, which must be released by opening what is called the sluice gate. If that is not done, the tendency is that the entire dam will be swept away. So, whether we have an agreement or not with Cameroon is not the issue. At any point they realise that the water level is posing danger to the dam itself, they will release the water. It could be gradual, but depending on the intensity of subsequent rains, they will eventually release fully.
You said Nigeria should have responded by creating a buffer when Cameroon built the Lagdo Dam. Can you shed more light on that?
When the Lagdo Dam was built between 1977 and 1982, Nigeria should have also built a dam, at least, two times the size of what they built in Cameroon. This is so that for whatever reason, when Cameroon releases the water from Lagbo dam, there will be something to withstand the pressure. I remember that the Federal Government was supposed to build some dams in Adamawa State, but for some reasons the project later became unattractive to the FG. When that failed, Nigeria experiences a free flow anytime Cameroon releases water. It happened in 2012; in 2013, it was worse; in 2018, there was another flood. It happens virtually every year, and it’s getting worse. Now, the government will have to think of providing relief materials with hundreds of millions of naira when all they would have done was do the needful back then.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency is doing a good job with issuing alerts. When the cock crows at dawn, it is to wake everyone, but a sick man cannot get up because he is sick. So, the alarm does not mean anything to us if we have not prepared for such a consequence ahead of time. Today, we only have ourselves to blame. The population of people displaced from communities now run into millions. It has also negatively impacted infrastructures. For instance, when there is a flood over an asphalt road, it peels it off because asphalt is bitumen-based. A bridge was cut off in Amassoma, Bayelsa State. This is a bridge that links the community to the outside world. All these damage, if put together, are more expensive than what should have been used by the FG to do some strategic mitigation against the flood.
According to a report by Relief Web, 637,000 hectares of farmland has been washed off by the flood. What does this portend for Nigeria, especially at a time when the nation is grappling with food insecurity?
Hunger is coming! This is because this is the peak of harvest. All those farmlands that are being swept away by the flood are the little we could have salvaged from the insecurity issues we have had. Some of those rice, yam farms are not accessible now. Many of the crops, when they are submerged, are damaged because the flood is deep. By the time the flood dries up, some will have been uprooted. Tomato farms cannot stay submerged for two weeks. Hunger and famine are coming! We just need to brace up for it.
When we have dead bodies floating from flooded cemeteries, drinking streams will be contaminated. There will be environmental issues, which must now be cleaned up if we don’t want an epidemic. As I said, providing relief materials and temporary resettling of displaced people is expensive. I think the expenses of these damage are comparable to the damage that COVID-19 did to Nigeria. It is just that individuals are managing their lives and sorting themselves. This is monumental, and I had expected the Federal Government to have declared a state of emergency along the basin.
NIMET had earlier warned of heavy, long-lasting rains and possible floods. Do you think the authorities handled that information as they should have?
Disasters like flooding is a long-term thing that needs to be planned for right from the level of policy development. What is the policy of the government concerning the river basins? If one goes to beaches outside Nigeria, one would discover that 1km to those beaches do not have any development. It is not by accident. It is deliberate. They ensure nobody builds too close to the beach. You may see temporary tents and all that but not permanent structures. That ensures that if one needs to dredge or expand, there is space. But if one visits Lokoja today… I wonder what the inspiration was for making Lokoja the Kogi State capital. Doing so was already looking for trouble because Lokoja is a confluence town that has little or no clearance around the confluence points. Making it a state capital and with subsequent developments, actually blocks the current flow of the water. Just take a look at Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital. It is the same thing. They keep developing on the exit point of several rivers. Now, the ocean is rising, in which case, it is coming back. The water from the hinterlands is also voluminous. So, on both sides of the divide, it is like a war.
If we don’t do anything, this current flooding has the potential of sweeping away the whole country. I repeat, it has the potential of becoming a major issue for Nigeria in weeks to come. This is because floods do not understand human language. You cannot point in the direction you want the flood to flow. The water will flow where it wants. If there is any restriction, it will flow into the restriction. This portends real danger for the country. Something must start happening now which will give us real relief, not the sympathy visits or the canoes I saw the Kogi and Niger states governments buy for their residents. How many canoes will they buy? When a house is submerged up to the roof level, will one live in the canoe? These are issues that need to be addressed.
As an expert, what should government do amid this huge crisis?
The government has not handled the situation well enough. We have a River Basin Development Commission that just takes benefits only. There were no serious policies on managing the River Benue. This flood is not just coming. 2012 was the first real threat. Thereafter, we just wished it away and continued our lives as normally immediately the floods receded; whereas, it was expected that some strategic infrastructure would have been put in place. Even if we don’t have the money to build huge dams, there are other structures and policies that would have been put in place. There are procedures and monitoring systems that would have solved the problem gradually. Since we cannot build huge dams; we can do earth dams. They are like relief dams when the water is overflowing its bounds. They are cheap to construct. Not just cheap; they can also be done gradually. For instance, if the country wants to construct a 330 cubic metre concrete dam, we have to do it and finish it before the next rainy season. Else, if it meets the unfinished project, it will sweep whatever is there away except there is a diversion, and River Benue is not a river that can be diverted. If we decide to build 20 earth dams from Adamawa down to Bayelsa, we can relocate these. If we do four earth dams every year; two on the right, two on the left in the upper course, we would have done something significant. In 10 years, we will be in Bayelsa. Before the earth dams even got to Bayelsa, we would have had a relief. The upper course would have taken some of this excess water. The natural boundaries can be slightly dredged, especially around the curves to straighten them. Then, we can build natural bound walls on both edges such that if there is a rise of one or two metres above the bound wall, we will still be comfortable. If we have a buffer of three metres on both sides, it will bring a lot of relief. This is something the state government can do. What are they doing with their ecological fund that they receive every year? Those funds are not for building drainage. That is the work of the local governments. It is not to build bridges that the state government should use its own funds to do. It is for a time like this; to prepare for a disaster like this. We are talking of 33 states out of the 36 states, and each of them receive this ecology fund. If this is channeled to building the bound walls, while the major earth dams are taken by the Federal Government in stages because of the paucity of funds, we will realise that within five years, we would have built 20 earth dams, and that would give us relief. Apart from the relief, these earth dams will create irrigation opportunities for the environment where they are built so that throughout the year there can be farming without any hindrances.
Some have argued that climate change is a western idea and not indigenous to Nigeria and the African continent. What is your reaction to this?
Climate change is real and very much evident in Nigeria. I laugh at people who think it is just a way the West wants to tell us what to do with our resources. The world is changing. Our lives are changing. It is we that are not proactive in the things that we should take seriously. An African man will tell you that when there is a flood, all they need to do is sacrifice. They will say the river goddesses are angry, but we know it is beyond that now. Climate change is not just news; it is real. We must prepare ourselves for it. Else, we will be victims when it worsens. The way the rivers have been ravaged in the last 10 years is enough lessons for us. If we look at the new estates in Lagos, everyone is sand-filling and closing all the rivers, estuaries and lagoons. At some point, the water volume will increase and it will not compress itself; it must make a way for it to flow.
Government must start taking the climate change issues seriously. It should not be in seminars. There should be concrete actions, policies that will follow us. Africans are difficult to convince that something is changing until they have seen it. Even when they have seen it, they still feel that something spiritual is happening. Some said it is the end of the world. We must do as much as we can to prepare for it. We are lucky in Nigeria; if it is in an area where there is adverse weather, then, we will understand that the issue of the depleting ozone layer is a serious one. We must keep the campaign on. We should take our waterways seriously. If we don’t abuse the environment, it will not act up. The environment is our friend. I hope going forward the government will change its attitude towards climate change.
