CLIMA

  Over the years, I had often read in newspapers about calamities caused by flooding and it usually sounded fictional because I had not witnessed a real-life scenario. Looking back now, I think we often underrate some things to be grateful for. The reality of my experience was mind-numbing. On Monday, 28 th June, 2021, I had left my workplace somewhat around 4:30pm hoping to get home early before it rained because it was cloudy.  Needless to say, the traffic that evening was terrible as everyone was trying to get home before the downpour. Unfortunately, it started raining before I arrived my destination. I had boarded a Safeboda bike but the rider had to end the trip because it was raining so hard that it started raining hailstones which I later learnt had not happened for many years back. By the time the rain stopped, it was 7:00pm and I was completely drenched from head to toe. I got another rider, this time a regular bike man, who I told I was going to Kuola. Mid-way, I s...

In this video, a Community Leader in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria canvasses imbibing proper waste disposal as a panacea for mitigating perennial flood risk in the ancient city. Among other things, his submission shows a high level of awareness among the community people about the relationship between dumping wastes into the waterways and incidents of flash floods. What remains, however, is for this awareness to translate into belief and action amongst residents and other stakeholders. That way, the statistics of perennial flood events in Ibadan might be on the downward trend.  

Once the dry season sets in, residents of Ibadan, currently adjudged Nigeria’s third largest metropolitan city, enjoy some measure of relief, borne out of the fact that the fear of flooding is kept at bay, at least while the dry season lasts. This is based on the fact that Ibadan has witnessed massive flooding over the years, with the first officially recorded one being in 1951. Since then, there have been sporadic flooding incidents plaguing the sprawling city, with attendant tragic after-effects on lives and property. While there were more floods in the 1980s than in the preceding decades, perhaps the worst flooding episode was the one that took place on 26 th August, 2011 which destroyed most of the strategic, flood-channeling hydraulic structures in the ancient city, in addition to colossal loss of human and animal lives. According to a report titled “ The August 2011 Flood in Ibadan, Nigeria: Anthropogenic Causes and Consequences ” by a team of experts commissioned by the Oyo ...

  Wednesday and Thursday, 23 rd and 24 th June, 2021 were two days of a kind for some operational staff of the Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP). Not because the Project suddenly hit a jackpot or accomplished its full mandate, but more for the streak of adventure experienced by the concerned staff on both days. This derived from their being co-opted into the arduous but exciting task of combing remote villages and farmlands within the jurisdiction of Akinyele Local Government Area of Ibadan, which have been earmarked for building of dikes for flood control in the metropolis. The background information is that, building of seventeen (17) dikes had been factored into the IUFMP design as part of the long-term measures to checkmate perennial flooding in Ibadan. The idea behind the dikes is to temporarily hold water flow at the upstream areas of rivers prone to flooding, with a view to curtailing flow level into the metropolis during periods of heavy downpour. The dikes ...