Nigerian Cities, Most Vulnerable To Flooding –Expert

A Nigerian researcher has said that urban slums in the country are among the most vulnerable areas to flooding.

Dr Felix Olorunfemi of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, stated in a paper he delivered at the monthly seminar series of the institute yesterday  in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.

The title of the paper was “Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management”.

Olorunfemi said that his comparative study of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, and Cape Town, South Africa, showed that the key conditions generating vulnerability in both cities included poverty, overcrowding and social inequality.

He noted that the authorities in Cape Town were better prepared than those in Ilorin in managing flood disasters.

With respect to response, he said that South Africans prepared ahead for disaster with early warning mechanism and the provision of disaster relief, whereas Nigeria lacked pre-disaster preparation and only focused on post-disaster relief.

On weather information services, Olorunfemi said that while Cape Town had a functional weather forecast and management outfit, there was none in Ilorin.

He, therefore, concluded that climate change and variability were likely to worsen the prospects for poverty eradication unless the government took proactive steps to become response-capable.

In his remarks, Prof. Femi Olokesusi, the acting Director-General of NISER, expressed regrets that local government authorities had neglected establishing the equivalent of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) at the grassroots as provided by the law.