By Echeburu Oby
Flooding is not often caused by heavy rainfall alone, but sometimes it happens when dams are opened and they cannot accommodate more water it tends to flood. Floods are major disasters that is affecting many countries of the world annually especially in the most flood plain areas,
The rainy seasons are known as a season of flooding in Nigeria and around the world, we have experienced different situations of flood in Nigeria in the year 2020, which have affected properties, human lives and live stocks.
Recent floods and consequences all over the world are becoming too frequent and threat to sustainable development in human settlements, over 500 houses were recently washed away by flood at Dambatta Local Government Area in Kano state of Nigeria, the Emir of Gumi Justice Lawal Hassan stated that more than 100 houses were destroyed by a flood that happened on Sunday in the Gumi Local Government Area of Zamfara state.
In the last three decades, the impacts of flooding have increasingly assumed from significant to threatening proportions, resulting in losses sustained by the urban dwellers and flood victims.
These floods incidents have caused a lot of damages to most people by destroying houses, farm lands and livestock. Apart from houses that collapse by flooding, school buildings and bridges sometimes collapse as well. Markets places and farmlands are submerged for weeks and sometimes are washed away.
Some residents that witnessed another flood incidence at Asikolaye, Kaduna South Local Government Area of Kaduna State, stated that they experience flooding once in two years and this has forced many residents out of their various homes.
Sometime in August 2020, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) alerted that 28 states and 102 local governments would likely be at risk of flooding due to heavy rainfall.
Viewpoint Housing media feel that more creating of awareness concerning flood and its preventive measures need to be done in other for the masses at large to have better awareness and work with the government by not dropping of waste in gutters and drainages and also to enlighten them more on the danger of building on flood plains. A resident of Lokogoma has appealed to the g to intervene on the indiscriminate dumping of refuse along flood plains and drainages.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, gave an advice in a statement in Abuja on Sunday the 13th of September 2020, by her Special Assistant on Media, Mrs. Nneka Anibeze, stating that the state governments need to take proactive measures to reduce the effect of heavy rainfalls and flooding, all of these in other to safeguard lives and properties.
The managing director of the federal mortgage bank released a statement last week which stated that the bank is to commence work on the delivery of 5,000 housing units under the National Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) that was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to stimulate economic growth and that these housing units will be developed in major locations around the country.
Not forgetting that FMBN mandate is to create affordable housing to Nigerians around the country, not forgetting that flooding has swept most houses and leaving many homeless, it will be of great importance, if these housing units are built in locations where flooding has occurred with this it will be obvious to say that the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria is making every possible means to reduce the Nigerian housing deficit problem.
