Climate Variability and the Issues in Flood Disaster Risk Awareness in Nigerian Communities

Abstract

Prior to human civilization, floods have been identified as one of the
most lethal environmental and geophysical disasters with destructive
consequences. Yet, individual/ group risk awareness levels and impact
mitigations vary across distinct geographic locations and times. This
study explores issues in climate-induced flood disaster risk awareness
in Nigeria. The discourse analyses using qualitative and quantitative
tools revealed that the causative factors and levels of flood disaster
awareness in Nigerian communities varied across geographic
locations and timescale. Also, the flood disaster profiles in Nigeria
reflect dominant control by variations in the climatic (rainy) seasons.
Hence, most of the historic flood disasters in Northern Nigeria have
strong affinities with river discharge and dam failure while those in
Southern Nigeria were mostly influenced by the high frequency,
density, intensity of rainfall, and poor land-use planning. Also, the
government, donor agencies, and the vulnerable people were basically
passive in their management approaches, with emphasis on postdisaster rehabilitation, which hampered sustainable development and
exacerbate the negative impacts on the realization of an ecologically
smart future. The perceived flaws led to very high risk, defined by
limited capacity and locational effect. The paper, therefore,
recommended adequate promotion of pre-flood disaster risk
mitigation options through environmental education programs to
boost community awareness, increase the sense of responsibility and
safety of vulnerable people.