Flood Management In Nigeria: The Sustainability Imperative

BY CHIMA NGADI

OVERVIEW

The Nigerian legendary musician- Fela Anikulapo-Kuti once sang that water has no enemy but victims of flood disasters surely do harbour some reservations. The importance of water for the survival of mankind cannot be overemphasized. Surely, very few businesses and living things can survive without water. The importance of planned and well managed water policy becomes critical during periods of extreme drought and flood. In Nigeria, the latter is indeed much more prevalent and recurs virtually annually during the rainy season.

Water is one resource that is so abundant but yet, so scarce. According to World Water Forum (WWF), a global advocate of water policy, an individual needs between 1,000-1,500 cubic litres of freshwater annually. This statistics is in itself very modest as individuals actually need more than this projection annually. Even at this modest statistics, the Nigerian case is even more compelling and pathetic as it lags behind the threshold by one-half percentage point and the downward spiral continues unabated.

 

Now consider the obvious: it takes about 20 litres of water for an individual to flush a water closet per visit to keep it in a comfortable and hygienic state for another visit. Now assume that the individual visits the restroom once a day, it becomes obvious that the individual would have used 7,320 {(20×366)} cubic litres of water in one year for convenience alone assuming hand-washing is ignored.  Now assume further that the cost of 1 litre of freshwater is just 50k and 100 million people must visit the restroom daily for a year. This =N=366 billion naira waste can be saved or/and deployed to other needy sectors of the economy. In fact, it will cost far less to implement constructive Integrated Water Programme- IWP that can harvest over 30 billion litres of rainwater annually and recycle same to the best economic uses across the country while containing flood in the process.

 

Nigeria wastes over 50 billion cubic litres of water annually to flood. This is in exclusion of other quantifiable and unquantifiable human and material losses arising from flood disasters across the country. In our recent memory was the flood devastation that wrecked the ancient city of Ibadan last year as well as the flood that sacked several suburbs of the Lagos metropolis. This is not forgetting the flood devastation that also affected Kebbi State and indeed, other states of the federation at various times.

Amid these disasters, ecological prophets, armed with metrological spreadsheet, have predicted doom for the country in this fiscal 2012.  But unlike the holy prophet of doom, they proffer very scanty solutions. But solutions must be provided as water will become another additional environmental threat to mankind in the next half a century if not addressed head-on.

 

SO FAR: SO WHAT?

As expected, some states have not taken these predictions lightly as they have evolved several strategies to contain flooding. Prominent in this policy is the massive clearing of drainages to provide unimpeded access of rainwater into the lagoons via the canals. This approach is not perfect, but not bad. It is indeed the first but must not be the only solution, to flood management in the country. It is elementary science that everything has capacity including the ocean basins, lagoons and even the soil beds. It is also basic knowledge that as it rains on the land, so also does it rain on these finite receptacles. The implication is that once these capacities have been filled, it will become futile to belabour them with further loads. In fact, they will spew their contents back to the community once their capacities have been breached. This is nature and in nature, it is better to augment its providence than to tolerate its excesses. Thus, the on-going policy of channelling is bound to have limited impact especially in the medium over the long term in managing the incidence of flooding in the country especially as it is being deployed and solely relied upon in most states especially riverine ones.

THE SUSTAINBILITY ALTERNATIVE

Many times I watched the television streaming the incidence of floods in the country, I get personally agitated and testy, wondering why authorities could not see that we are actually sitting on a goldmine. The over 50 billion cubic litres of water wasted, if harvested, would have made the country self-sufficient in water requirements and effectively check the incidence of flooding in the long term. Hence, governments at all levels should begin the process of harvesting rainwater as part of the overall water management policy. Rainwater harvested during the rainy season will be available for economic use during the dry season especially in agriculture without having any negative impact on the environment.

The efficacy of rainwater harvesting was brought to the fore when a frontline realtor studied the Sustainability Report-SR of rainwater harvesting in one of his estates. He was initially sceptical, not knowing all that it entails and because of its novelty. He was equally unwilling to commit outlay for obvious reasons but he observed that the benefits outweigh the cost and therefore, reluctantly signed on for just an estate. Upon the completion of the project were rainwater was continually harvested and reticulated to serve the gardens, the convenience and industrial cleaning within the estate, other tangential costs of managing the facility dropped markedly. Within six months, three months before target, the project recovered the outlay and began making contributions. The energy consumption of the estate dropped sharply by thirty per cent due to marked drop in water pumping. Water usage also dropped as fresh and treated water become suddenly abundant. The plumbing department of this estate had five staff prior the project but was reduced to two after project completion because only two staff would be relevant. It is anticipated that after the completion of other estates, the realtor will need only five plumbing staff to manage his entire estate down from seventeen staff. More so, large and energy gulping water pumping machines were disconnected and salvaged for use elsewhere. Most importantly, the estate which was previously prone to flooding was completely rid of it to the relief of facility managers and occupants. This however, was the primary objective of the project. Today, there is pressure to complete that of other estates before the rainy season gathers momentum.

Without much prompting, the realtor saw the benefits of rainwater harvesting as a luculent policy that’s worth the while.

 

Thus, the federal government, in conjunction with other tiers of government should develop, harmonize and approve an Integrated Water Policy-IWP for the country as a matter of urgency which should aim at the organic harvesting of rainwater for sustainable development. This becomes even more compelling as experts have posited the gradual and steady pressure to the underground water resource which will soon become a global threat to mankind. This policy must also persuade property developers at the micro level to begin the process of harvesting rainwater within their properties and estates whereas states should assume the harvesting of municipal rainwater.

Drainage desilting is not an alternative to rainwater harvesting. Rainwater harvesting is key to effective flood management and the earlier this card is put on the table, the better. In the long run, it will be testified that the solution to flooding and rapid gully erosion in the country rests more within the Ministry of Water Resources than the Ministry of the Environment.

 

Moreover, government should review the activities of the various River Basin Development Authorities across the country with a view to repositioning them to perform their critical role of harnessing the nation’s water resources for sustainable development.  Obviously, they need urgent and thorough operational audit if they must remain relevant in their mission of ensuring that the country is self-sufficient in water management and water security.

 

THE FISCAL IMPERATIVES

It is a well-known adage that for every prize there is a price. Therefore, the state should evolve creative ways of funding infrastructural development in the country. Indeed, all over the world, social financing stretches the subtlety and nimbleness of financial policy makers. The Roll on Roll out-RoRo social finance strategy will come in handy to providing the state with funds to execute the IWP and indeed, other infrastructural projects. The major tenet of RoRo is the tax to project-Tâ‚‚P paradigm. Tâ‚‚P is an ancient method of financing social infrastructure wherein the state levies a tax on all taxable persons (individuals & corporates) within such period as may be convenient to raise funds that are tied specifically to a previously identified project. Upon completion, the payers are refunded at a prearranged interest rate within a specified period by claiming tax reliefs to this effect in their books. The state has no power to invest in any other project than the gazetted project(s) except under certain conditions. This is a form of borrowing that is tied to a particular project. The choice of name RoRo is obvious. As the funds roll in, the projects must roll out and payers must claim their tax reliefs by charging same in their books. This they will do by making it a prime charge to EBIT prior to residual taxation. The state must not deploy RoRo any further except the previous obligation has been retired successfully. If the state can deploy RoRo in the most creative manner, it will realize that its potency in raising needed development funds could be amazing and helpful.

 

Did I hear you cry multiple- taxation? Or do you feel strongly about this piece? Then visit my Facebook page and drop your comments.

 

WHAT NEXT?

At this juncture, it becomes very imperative for the federal government to convene a National Water Forum-NWF where pertinent issues will be addressed and latest technologies and applications in flood and water management discussed as a prelude to drafting an effective Integrated Water Policy for the country. This is long overdue. We must not wait for disasters to set our environmental and economic agenda. This will amount to taken part in organizing our own funeral. God forbid.

According to the revered Japanese technologist, Mr Toyoda: “to plan ahead, is to stay ahead ‘’

 

Chima Ngadi, an avid environmentalist, wrote in from Gombe

1 COMMENT

  1. This is a brilliant idea I must say and I am very optimistic about the efficacy of this project if adopted by our government..

    The troubling part is how to raise fund through tax..How can we hold the government accountable in paying back the tax through the tax-relief suggested??