Table of contents

•Introduction

•Data Gathering

•Data cleaning

•Data visualization

•Most affected states

• Causes of flood

•Number of households

•Number of internally displaced persons

•Damage and diseases

•Solution

•References

Introduction

In the year of 2022 Nigeria witnessed one of the worst natural disasters cause by flood, which ravaged many communities and caused a lot of damages of infrastructure, properties, farm land, crops, livestock, disrupt of logistics and lost of lives in Nigeria. I pick interest in this project to analysis the damages and diseases cause by the flood in most of the Affected states in Nigeria

Data gathering

Data gathering was done by me, I scraped a lot of pages from reliable sources, am sure that their data collection wasn’t done base on biased but been done professionally, like online newspapers, other reliable source websites such as International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), Nigeria Emergency Management Agency(NEMA).

Data Cleaning

After gathering my data, I had to started to clean my data to sort for the most important relevant information(relevant and important are alomost similar in meaning) then drop the irrelevant information in the research.

Data storing

Data was stored as excel file for better storage and accessing for future recording

Data visualization

Exported excel file to power bi and I created a dashboard for a better display of my findings and communicate the analysis

https://app.powerbi.com/links/mZzM9TkSqo?ctid=0555a3c8-d48b-4efe-a689-635a104ea6c7&pbi_source=linkShare

Most affected states

Some flood-affected states include Bayelsa, Kogi, Delta, Gombe, Enugu, Kano, Adamawa, Jigawa,Delta,Anambra, Benue,Yobe, and Borno. This year’s flood is believed to be the worst that Nigeria has experienced in decades, as it has created humanitarian crises and compounded economic challenges in the affected areas. Some communities are inaccessible and cut off from goods and services. In September, Rann and Damasak local government areas in Borno State, host areas of many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), could only be accessed by helicopter, and commuters along Lokoja-Abuja road were left stranded because of the flood. The flood also resulted in a major tragedy in Anambra State, where people had to rely on boats as major roads had been destroyed.

Causes of flood

I, Climate Change: A climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, these shifts may be natural as variations in the solar cycle. A climate modeling study by world weather attribution project estimated that floods were render far more likely and much more intense. The model from June to September rainfall in lake chad and lower Niger river catchment areas, looking at the total rain fall and intense rain weeks

II, Heavy rainfall: in 2022 Nigeria witness a constant heavy rain, overflow of local rivers which resulted to excess water on ground which can’t be control, caused by the flood

III, Lagdo Dam: This dam is located in Cameroun, Nigeria neighboring country, each year the water level of the dam has rose dramatically and the spill was overflowed, so Cameroonian officials had to release water from the the dam to avoid breakage of the dam which, he stated, would have been more disastrous. The release large amount of water to ensure the dam remains in one piece, however the follow protocol ,while Nigeria counterpart hasn’t built a dam to take or defense mechanism against the excessive water been release from lagdo dam, anytime the water is been release the water doesn’t have any channel to be store but the water will just flow without control neither direction which will end up savaging of communities in Nigeria

Number of households affected

Over 2.5million people affected and houses were submerged by flood. The road served as link to between North and south parts of the country and many passengers were being stranded as well.

Number of displaced persons

Over 1.3 million people are affected by the widespread of the flood in Nigeria, houses been damage, infrastructure damage, farmlands been destroyed, which resulted for the government to open internally displaced person camps across the states to temporary host the displaced people

Damages done

Immediate impacts of flooding in Nigeria have left alot of people speechless and in pain, over 602 people lost their lives, properties damage beyond repairs, destruction of crops, loss of livestock, and deterioration of health conditions owing to waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid and malaria. As communication links and infrastructure such as power plants, roads and bridges are damaged and disrupted, economic activities were on standstill, people are forced to leave their homes and normal life is disturbed.

Solution

In order to prevent the reoccurrence of this disaster in the future, the governments need to do some of the following:

The first culprit of flooding is always the big word ‘Climate Change’, which is basically the changed weather patterns associated with global warming. It is obvious that the climatic conditions are changing; however, there are many related, natural, and manmade factors that contribute to flooding. One major cause of perennial flooding in Nigeria is ‘river and ocean surges’ by tides, pushing water to overflow it downstream boundaries. The states around the major rivers like Benue, Kogi, Anambra, Adamawa, and others are the most affected states. The River Niger and Benue overflow their banks into neighboring communities basically because their depth is silted and shallow, making it difficult to accommodate the volume of water that flows downstream and consequently runs off into the dry lands, causing flooding. Similarly, the ocean also experiences such overflows during heavy rains or winds. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, it has been confirmed that the release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Northern Cameroon also contributes to the flooding. It is noteworthy that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other associated agencies have been reactive in handling issues of flooding rather than being proactive. What is usually done can be described as post-disaster management. It is very sad that the regular pattern has been that NEMA waits until there is a disaster, then they go and distribute mattresses, foodstuffs, and paltry sums to the flood victims. I would also like to confirm that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) releases regular weather data and predicts the rainfall pattern which is seldom used for planning by the agencies of the government in charge of disaster management. Given the extent to which the 2022 flooding has devastated the people and the environment, this has left many people hopeless, it is important to declare it a national emergency. To forestall further threats to food security, the economy, health, security, and the environment, the government must adopt the following recommendations as a way to reduce the impact of perennial flooding in Nigeria. First, NEMA must begin to act proactively by utilizing geographical information systems and metrological data to improve their early warning systems and reduce people’s exposure to flood risk. The communication must be timely and effective and adequate provisions must be made in case of an emergency evacuation.

Secondly, the Nigerian government must begin to consider the construction of a buffer dam to accommodate excess water from the Lagdo dam in Cameroon. This is very critical given that aside from the dam absorbing excess water, a buffer dam will provide irrigation for thousands of hectares of land, stimulate fishing, and most likely support the generation of electricity.Widening of gutters and pathways – the gutters and water ways need to be cleared of dirt, debris and other items. Each local authorities should be compelled to widen as a matter of urgency, and if possible pull down structures that are obstructing water ways across the country. Building of dikes and levees – Dikes and levees are embankments constructed to prevent flooding. Levees may be formed naturally or artificially. They prevent the water from overflowing and flooding surrounding areas. Dikes are walls that hold back the sea. Water Harvesting – this generally refers to the collection of rainstorm-generated runoff from a particular area (a catchment) in order to provide water for human, animal, or crop use. This would come handy during the dry season when water is scarce..

Thirdly, the government must invest in the dredging of the major rivers to accommodate high volume of water, promote inland waterways as well as capture fishing.

Finally, the government must build, reactivate, and maintain the urban drainage systems, and prevent people from erecting structures on waterways. Building of canals along the flood prone channels in order to create an avenue for the snake-like flood to pass peacefully without causing havoc to any obstruction on the way.

References

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/10/25/tackling-the-problem-of-flooding-in-nigeria/

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/nigeria-flood-rain-climate

https://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/nigeria-floods-response-flash-update-2-last-updated-1-november-2022

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nigeria_floods#:~:text=The%202022%20Nigeria%20floods%20affected,land%20had%20also%20been%20affected.