Flood death toll exceeds 500 in Nigeria this year

Flood death toll exceeds 500 in Nigeria this year
October 12, 2022, 8:30 am

Kogi residents resort to the use of canoes to cummute as flood waters submerge roads - Fatai Campbell/AP

Nigerian official said Tuesday (Oct 11) More than 500 people have been killed and 1,546 others injured this year in the African country due to heavy rains and floods, the Xinhua reported.

Floods have so far wreaked havoc in 31 states and the Federal Capital Territory, affecting over 1.4 million people and dislocating 790,254, said Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

More than 44,000 houses were partially damaged, and about 45,000 houses were totally damaged by floods, while more than 140,000 hectares of farmland were partially or completely destroyed, said the official when updating in Abuja the flood situation.

He said the national flood emergency preparedness and response plan recently approved by the Federal Executive Council offers guidance on how to mitigate the impacts of floods.

On Friday (Oct 7), seventy-six people have died as their boat capsized while they tried to flee dangerously high floodwaters that have inundated swathes of southern Nigeria.

Nigeria’s flood crisis has been disastrous this year. The country’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) warned of more catastrophic flooding for states located along the courses of rivers Niger and Benue, explaining that three of Nigeria’s overfilled reservoirs were expected to overflow.

The NEMA also said that the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon was bound to “complicate”” Nigeria’s already disastrous flood crisis.

“The Lagdo dam operators in the Republic of Cameroun have commenced the release of excess water from the reservoir by 13th September, 2022. We are aware that the released water cascades down to Nigeria through River Benue and its tributaries thereby inundating communities that have already been impacted by heavy precipitation,” NEMA said in a statement on September 19.

“The released water complicates the situation further downstream as Nigeria’s inland reservoirs … are also expected to overflow between now and October ending,” it stated, adding that: “This will have serious consequences on frontline states and communities along the courses of rivers Niger and Benue.”

Kogi and Anambra were among 13 Nigerian states predicted to be overrun by “the combined waters of rivers Niger and Benue as they empty into the region,” NEMA said.

Seven bodies recovered, a dozen missing after boat capsizes in Nigeria

Many communities in Kogi are now underwater.

Climate activists are intensifying the call for climate finance to address Nigeria’s climate crisis.

Nigerian authorities are heeding this call as the country joins its African counterparts to seek an expansion of climate financing ahead of next month’s COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

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