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Flood Risk Management: The Imperatives For Society Wide Preparedness By Saadatu O.Muhammed
Flood is a serious disaster that negatively impacts on both its victim and the environment. Flood occurs when soil and vegetation cannot absorb all the water; water then runs off the land in quantities that cannot be carried in streams channels or retained in natural ponds and constructed reservoirs such as dams. Water is life. This is so because almost all living things are made up of and depends on water for survival. It is one of the most available resources provided by nature as more than three quarter of the universe is covered by water. Thus we have the seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, canals, springs, rains and streams. All these are sources of water. However, there exists limitation of access to some of these. Perhaps, the more pervasive are the rains and streams.
It’s natural to look forward to the rains during the wet season of the year. The season comes with the blessing of replenishing lost water for domestic, agricultural and navigational uses among others. It could also become a source of worry when the water becomes excessive resulting in flood to cause damages. Flood is a natural phenomenon that results from the overflow of the water course. Some of these occur as a result of heavy rains, dam breakage and blockage of the channels.
The disaster is usually more pronounced on rural communities largely due to low levels of technological know-how, poor infrastructure, huge population and high poverty level among other problems.
The occurrence of flood poises serious dangers to the particular area. The victims are exposed to numerous hazards while valuable resources such as crops and the plains are usually also affected. However, sometimes its occurrence results in somewhat blessing but these are usually insignificant when compared to the damages.
Most floods experienced in Nigeria destroy drainage system and cause raw sewage to spillage. They also affect buildings which could be significantly damaged. This is in addition to the catastrophic effect on the environment as many toxic materials such as paints, gasoline and chemicals can be released into the river, lakes bay and ocean, killing maritime life. Flood may also cause million of money worth of damage to a city, both evicting people from their homes and running business.
With the setting in of the rain the risk of flood is in the horizon for some locations. A sustainable flood risk management is required. But this cannot be achieved in isolation – rather it should be a part of community development. In this circumstance, it is essential to build a community's capacity to understand their vulnerabilities, strategies, activities and the role they could play in managing flood risks without relying on external entities. Government and concern organizations need to evolve a community-based flood hazard-mapping technique to address the fear of the disaster. The approach should be made to focus on the effective development of policies and correct the defects of the top-down approach in disaster planning and to encourage all stakeholders' participation in an integrated and sustainable manner. This way, flood risk can be reduced to the minimum.
Saadatu O.Muhammed National Emergency Management Agency . ABUJA
FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT: THE IMPERATIVES FOR SOCIETY WIDE PREPAREDNESS
By Saadatu O.Muhammed
Flood is a serious disaster that negatively impacts on both its victim and the environment. Flood occurs when soil and vegetation cannot absorb all the water; water then runs off the land in quantities that cannot be carried in streams channels or retained in natural ponds and constructed reservoirs such as dams. Water is life. This is so because almost all living things are made up of and depends on water for survival. It is one of the most available resources provided by nature as more than three quarter of the universe is covered by water. Thus we have the seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, canals, springs, rains and streams. All these are sources of water. However, there exists limitation of access to some of these. Perhaps, the more pervasive are the rains and streams.
It’s natural to look forward to the rains during the wet season of the year. The season comes with the blessing of replenishing lost water for domestic, agricultural and navigational uses among others. It could also become a source of worry when the water becomes excessive resulting in flood to cause damages. Flood is a natural phenomenon that results from the overflow of the water course. Some of these occur as a result of heavy rains, dam breakage and blockage of the channels.
The disaster is usually more pronounced on rural communities largely due to low levels of technological know-how, poor infrastructure, huge population and high poverty level among other problems.
The occurrence of flood poises serious dangers to the particular area. The victims are exposed to numerous hazards while valuable resources such as crops and the plains are usually also affected. However, sometimes its occurrence results in somewhat blessing but these are usually insignificant when compared to the damages.
Most floods experienced in Nigeria destroy drainage system and cause raw sewage to spillage. They also affect buildings which could be significantly damaged. This is in addition to the catastrophic effect on the environment as many toxic materials such as paints, gasoline and chemicals can be released into the river, lakes bay and ocean, killing maritime life. Flood may also cause million of money worth of damage to a city, both evicting people from their homes and running business.
With the setting in of the rain the risk of flood is in the horizon for some locations. A sustainable flood risk management is required. But this cannot be achieved in isolation – rather it should be a part of community development. In this circumstance, it is essential to build a community's capacity to understand their vulnerabilities, strategies, activities and the role they could play in managing flood risks without relying on external entities. Government and concern organizations need to evolve a community-based flood hazard-mapping technique to address the fear of the disaster. The approach should be made to focus on the effective development of policies and correct the defects of the top-down approach in disaster planning and to encourage all stakeholders' participation in an integrated and sustainable manner. This way, flood risk can be reduced to the minimum.
Saadatu O.Muhammed National Emergency Management Agency . ABUJA |