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 ...
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