By Kemi Yesufu
Local and foreign stakeholders met in Abuja on Wednesday to map out an integrated approach to managing floods in major towns and cities in the country.
Speaking at a one-day workshop on the Blue-Green Initiative for Urban Flood Resilience in Nigeria programme organised by the University of Nottingham in collaboration with the Agriculture Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Executive-Secretary of the Council, Prof. Garba Sharubutu, stated that the Federal Government is analyzing the Blue-Green Cities plan of protecting urban centres against flooding.
“The evidence of climate change is all around us. Three people died in Trademore Estate Lugbe, along Airport Road, here in Abuja due to the flood incident last week, precisely Sunday night on 12th/13th of September.
“It is long overdue that we expedite solutions that are sustainable and make our cities and towns resilient to these kinds of costly environmental problems. Here we have the research consortium at the University of Nottingham in collaboration with other organisations developed a new initiative: the Blue-Green Cities Initiative which we can leverage on to sustainability manage our environment.
“I would like to say that our expectation from this workshop is to create partnerships and collaborations among stakeholders, establishing strong networks and possibly creating thematic teams that will explore possibilities of developing and adopting MoUs to guide collaborative projects development and execution”, Sharubutu said.
Blue-Green City concept is aimed at creating a naturally-oriented water cycle while contributing to the amenity of the city by bringing water management and green (trees and other greenery) infrastructure together.
Blue-Green Cities trigger different levels of of environmental, ecological, socio-cultural and economic benefits.
Professor of Geography and Environment Management at the University of Abuja, Ibrahim Yari Mallo, in his paper entitled, Incidences and Causes of Flood in Abuja, listed causes of flooding in the nation’s capital and some other cities across the country to include Nigeria’s vast endowment of streams, the poorly informed choice of building settlements near rivers and flood plains.
This as he identified the building of slums, indiscriminate dumping of refuse, abuse of plans by desperate builders and overall poor management of water infrastructure, indiscriminate dumping of linear low density polythene, hard density polyethylene and lack of greenbelts to allow water infiltrate naturally into the ground as major causes of flooding.
He said: “The major factor in the generation of runoff or overland flow is the occurrence of rainfall. However, where runoff is professionally controlled through well built underground drains or well constructed wide and deep surface drains flood will not take place.
“So poor planning and not necessary the amount of rainfall received is one of the causes of flood occurrences in Nigerian cities.
“Nigeria is a country that is dissected by many rivers, streams and rivulet. The economic allurements of streams and rivers for fishing, irrigation, domestic water supply, recreation exercises like boating and so on attracts Nigerians to encroach and settle near streams or rivers.
“People settle on the flood plains which are vulnerable to flood forgetting that such areas are liable to inundation. In many of such settlements flooding may not take place for many years but in very wet years peoples houses get flood loading to severe damages to lives and property.”
“Currently, weather patterns have changed featuring heavy downpours of rain unprecedented in the past. Coastal areas are getting more flooded primarily due to rising sea levels”, he further said.
But, Prof Colin Throne from the University of Nottingham, UK, called on the Federal Government to be deliberate and prompt in its efforts as the country appears blink.Thorne who spoke virtually, encouraged government to enhance planning policy, sustain urban growth and development, improve public health and well-being, and widen stakeholder engagement in cities
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