Nigeria: Flood - Danger Looms in Lagos

Dr. Akintola Omigbodun is an expert in flood management. In this interview, he says the floods ravaging many states in Nigeria are avoidable. Omigbodun, who fielded questions from Vanguard editors during a visit to the media house, last week, also deplores the Ministry of Water Resources' handling of the crisis and warns that there are grave dangers ahead for Lagos and Ogun states should the water in Oyan Dam not be properly managed.

You are an expert on environmental issues, particularly flooding. What got the flooding story in Nigeria started and was it avoidable?

There is a dam across the River Benue in Cameroon called Lagdo Dam. This dam is about 40meters high. Its storage capacity is about half of what is found in Kainji Lake Dam. And at full flow, if equipment was installed in it, it could possibly generate 700 megawatts of electricity. But the equipment is limited and is only generating about 20 megawatts.

They are also supposed to have an irrigation scheme in that dam. The result is that the dam is storing a huge amount of water and is not being used for any purpose. In the event of so much rainfall like what we have now, the people around the dam would become terrified that it might be overtopped. So the authorities release additional water from the dam.

What we get now is a lot more than what we would get. If there was no dam, the water will continue to flow day in day out. But when you put a dam, you are controlling the flow of water; when you now suddenly release the water because you are afraid your dam will overtop, then it will result to releasing much water. The Lagdo Dam has been flooding every year, just that this year is exceptional. Communities in Cameroon are also flooded. There is a town called Garua; every year, that place is flooded. But in order to save Nigeria, the Cameroonian government should lower their operational level, otherwise, every year, most Nigerian communities will continue to be flooded.

Can we know more about this operational level that you want the Cameroonian authorities to lower?

What really happened was that they opened the gate of their dam. The actual water released from that dam from 1992 to 2002 showed that they opened a number of gates at higher percentages. Floods are associated with rainfall, water courses, streams, rivers, dams and reservoirs where water behind dams are stored. Rainfall is natural while dams and their reservoirs are hand made and are therefore subject to human control. Dam owners and operators are expected to exercise control over the water behind their dams such that in years of heavy rainfall and for singular rainfall events, water passing through the dams does not damage infrastructure or create floods. Earthquakes are natural events and, when they occur in certain regions, there is considerable damage to buildings and other social infrastructure. However, in some areas such as Tokyo in Japan, Los Angeles and San Francisco in the United States, buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes. Damage from natural occurrences can be limited through appropriate human action. For example, the Netherlands has over two-thirds of its economy and half its population below sea level. The Netherlands has about 350km of coastline on the North Sea and major rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt passing through on their way to the North Sea. The Netherlands has an active coastal and river flood management programme to keep the country flood-proof and maintain its prosperity.

Our experience in Nigeria suggests that dam operators should prepare for heavy rainfall within the next 20 years and for singular rainfall events leading to exceptional floods within the next 35years.

Is there a nexus between the Dam in Cameroon, and the River Benue and the flooding of the Oyan Dam?

There is no physical connection. What we have is operational connection. They (Cameroon) are storing a lot of water in the lake and they are not doing much with it. And when the water is much, they release it and the released water causes flooding.

If they release it in small quantity, it would not have effect, but when they release the water in large quantity, it results to flooding. The Osun River is not in any way connected to the Ogun River or the Niger. That tells you that there is no physical connection. I am hoping that government will live up to expectations. I have personally involved the Ministry of Environment and I must say that I am disappointed with their level of involvement in the crisis. They are just being arrogant.

The Minister of Water Resources has not lived up to expectation and I have met with the Director of Water Resources and I could not get him to do anything. I have also written to the Attorney General of the Federation on the Oyan Dam, so that they can do something about it. We must understand that the dams are designed to have spillways and the spillways guide the release of water. The people are suffering as a result of the flooding and government has to rise to the challenges posed by the flood.

We have River Ogun which starts in Oyo North. And there is a dam in Iseyin. That dam is about 47meters high. There is also a tributary of the Ogun River which also has a dam.

At the moment, the Okere Dam is not gated. There is no gate and water flows over. The dam is supposed to provide irrigation and also generate power. What is important is that the dam is supposed to provide water for Iseyin and environs. Following the non-utilisation of the dam for various purposes, there is huge storage of water. All the things that caused the flooding in Lagos and Ogun are under the control of Ogun River Basin Authority. They should manage the dams in such a way that we do not have flood in the areas of their mandate. We are about to be flooded again like what happened in 2010 and 2011.

I have had experience of the floods along the River Ogun in Ogun State and Lagos State in 2007, 2010 and 2011. The flood path is over 27km long and is up to 4km wide in places. The flood level in 2010 was 0.5m higher than the level of 2007. The River Ogun system has two major dams, the Okere Gorge Dam on the River Ogun at Okere Village 28km north east of Iseyin in Oyo State and the Oyan Dam located about 20km northwest of Abeokuta on the River Oyan, a tributary of the River Ogun.

The Okere Gorge Dam is ungated while the Oyan Dam is gated. The Federal Ministry of Water Resources has been asked to direct that the freeboard in the reservoir behind Oyan Dam should be increased by 4meters as an interim measure pending appropriate studies and a construction programme along the River Ogun from Oyan Dam to Lagos flood plains. Put simply, the floods now taking place yearly at Isheri North, the Lagos wetlands communities and parts of Ogun State and the River Oyan Dam were not built on the River Oyan respectively, floods will occur in the Lagos flood plains within the intervals of 10years and 25years.

With the construction of both dams, floods should no longer occur in the Lagos flood plains if both dams are being operated in accordance with their designs. In the exceptional situation, floods may occur once in 50 years.

For the months of August, September, October for years 1992 to 2002, it was only in August 1993 that there was water release. Presently, exceptional release of water takes place yearly in August, September and October. This was observed in 2007, 20010 and 2011. A greater part of the area covered by flood water in 2007 qualified to be included in the disaster area as opposed to the flood plains of the River Ogun. For example, a newspaper published on Friday, November 4, 2011 that the Itowolo Community Primary School Ikorodu started experiencing flood in 2007. The report indicated that the community was founded over 200 years ago and the community never experienced flood until 2007. Further, when the school was established 30years previously, there was no sign that the school would be affected by water.

Why does flood incidence wreaks so much havoc in the face of the existence of River Basin Authorities? Does it mean that the River Basins are no longer working?

The law establishing River Basin Development Authorities all over Nigeria, which is the River Basins Development Authorities, RBDAs, Act Chapter R9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, required RBDAs to control floods in their areas of operations. Under section 4(1) of this Act, part of the functions of the RBDAs is to undertake comprehensive development of both surface and underground water resources for multi-purpose use with particular emphasis on the provision of irrigation infrastructure and the control of floods and erosion and for watershed management. The river basin is also established to construct, operate and maintain dams, dykes, wells, boreholes, irrigation and drainage systems, and other works necessary for the achievement of the authority's functions and handover to be cultivated under irrigation scheme to the farmers.

However, they have not been performing their functions well. Even though the Ogun River Basin Authority is responsible for what we are experiencing here in Lagos, we are not taking them to court because of my not pleasant experiences in Nigeria's judicial system. The truth is that the flood in Lagos and some parts of Ogun State is entirely avoidable.

It is regrettable that the river basins are not working. For example, when I met the General Manager of Sokoto River Basin Authority, he told me that he only had three qualified staff to work with. Why should the government continue to award new contracts to build new dams, when they have not properly managed the ones they have?

Some have attributed this flooding disaster to climate change. Do you in anyway see climate change as a factor?

We should not be talking of climate change and sea level rise as the cause of the flooding because they are measurable. What the New York City panel on climate change said was that the figures of rainfall analysis from 1970 to 2000 indicated that rainfall and snow will only be ten percent different from 1970 to 2000. The rainfall in 1991 for Abeokuta and Iseyin in 1990 was higher than what we have today. People who are doing research on climate change have come up that there are variations in the rate of rainfall in West Africa. That implies that there are years of low rainfall and years of high rainfall change have variables that are measurable. What is needed to be done in the case of Oyan Dam is to lower the operational level by 4 meters.

What can be done proactively to forestall further damages by flood?

The best thing is for the government to perform its functions. I don't think the government is deaf to newspaper publications, even if they are deaf to letters, because I have written in the past and present on how to avoid the present damages that the flood is unleashing all over the country. What we are saying is that they should take correct measures so that we don't experience this kind of disaster again, because the chances of occurring again are real. The water we are seeing in the Niger Delta is River Niger and Benue water, because there is exceptional rainfall in Kainji and Lagdo Dams.

They were forced to release water. In River Benue, for instance, they wait for the water to be so much high before they release it. Government should realise that they are losing economically to the flooding. It affects our GDP and well-being.

My message is that the losses we are encountering as a result of the flood is avoidable. Definitely the flood would unleash food crisis on the nation, because farmers would lose their crops to the flood. We experienced a similar thing in Sokoto in 2010 when the Goronyo Dam wreaked havoc. The same thing will happen as a result of this year's disaster, especially for those that planted by the river side.

BY CHARLES KUMOLU@allafrica.com

Somaliland: Drought Leaves Nothing Untouched

The village elders are quick to tell me that Boodhlay, the name of this village, means dusty. A quick glance around shows that this name is very apt indeed.

There is hardly any vegetation here at all. No grass, just pockets of dry scrub, spiky acacia trees and dust as far as the eye can see. Unusually for this part of Somaliland, I can't see a single camel.

Almost everyone in the village is a pastoralist. This means that they are largely reliant on their herds of camels, goats and sheep to provide food, milk and income for their families. When there is not enough rain, the pasture soon disappears and people are forced to move in search of food and water for their animals.

"It is affecting every aspect of life"

Yusuf, one of the village elders tells me: "There have been droughts here for a long time now. The situation is very difficult. It is affecting the food and water supply, our incomes and the children's education. It is affecting every aspect of life."

When the drought came last year many people lost animals. In a place where your livestock are your livelihood, some families lost everything.

Recently, the humanitarian situation in Somaliland has modestly improved. The rainy season – known in the region as the Gu rains – was not as meagre as predicted this year. But there are many pockets of land, like Boodhlay, where the rains have been both late and insufficient. In these areas pasture remains extremely limited and water – both for livestock and human consumption – is scarce.

As Yusuf told me: "People think that because we have had some rains recently everything is OK. But they are wrong. Ten days ago it rained for two days. We've had nothing since. These two days of rain will not fix things. It takes a long time to recover. Nothing has changed."

Our response

Unless assistance is provided, these factors could lead to destitution for many of the pastoral communities that call eastern Somaliland home. We're calling for urgent funding to contribute towards sustainable early recovery in these areas.

We have also have launched an emergency intervention to address the lack of water in villages where we are already working, such as Boodhlay.

The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) component of our response is already underway, and we're aiming to provide immediate access to safe water for more than 7,000 families. This is being achieved via emergency water trucking, the restoration of water sources (berkads), or a combination of both.

In total we're targeting 21 villages in eastern Somaliland. To date, we've reached 13,557 people, including 6,110 children in the area through our WASH intervention.

somalilandsun.com

In response to 2011's famine in parts of southern Somalia, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) more than doubled its support to Somali farmers, especially in the cereal producing parts in the country's south.

To restore the crop production capacity, FAO distributed appropriate agricultural inputs (cereal seeds and fertilizers) and provided technical assistance in conservation agriculture. In the cropping season that followed 2011's famine declaration, FAO procured and distributed 3750 tons of Urea and 1300 tons of DAP fertilizer to Somali farmers. Other farm inputs included 135 tonnes of maize seeds, 935 tonnes of sorghum seeds and 120 tonnes of sesame seeds.

Distribution of these inputs is aimed at restoring the productive capacity (and improving food security) of some 150, 000 farming households (equivalent to 900 000 people) in Somalia.

However, 2012 has seen the introduction of tractor hours per beneficiary, through which farmers access tractors to cultivate their land resulted in cultivation of over 1,533hectares of land. Through a creating irrigation scheme, farmers pay money to access water pumps to irrigate their fields. As a result, some 8496 hectares has been irrigated to date.

FAO's agricultural activitiesEuropean Commission, United Kingdom, United States, Australia Aid, The World Bank Belgium, Spain and Italy.

Harare Water Woes No Solution in Sight

"Ratepayers took full advantage of the opportunity provided by Monday's meeting to express their views on the question of Salisbury water supply and members of the City Council who attended heard some outspoken criticism. The public was told that the present position was caused 'by the failure of the Cleveland Dam', the 30 million gallons of water in which was unuseable, and further that lack of rainfall was the sole reason for the failure of Cleveland Dam.

"These explanations are all very well, but what the average ratepayer would consider more valuable would be an assurance that the present position will not arise again and a statement of what steps are to be taken to prevent its recurrence.

"The City Council seems to be pinning its faith to the Prince Edward Dam which, with its daily average reserve of 500 million gallons, could more than satisfy Salisbury's present hot weather consumption over one million gallons a day if all the filters were in operation," read part of a story published in The Herald of October 9, 1937.

Water problems dogged Salisbury residents back then with the then council officials facing criticism from angry residents left, right and centre.

Each council that came into office made many promises on how they would put an end to the water challenges.

Seventy-five years later, serious water problems still stalk Harare and similar challenges haunt residents raising the question of what it will take to bring an end to the crisis.

The solution seems elusive; it is like looking for the legendary Lochness monster.

Town planner Mr Percy Toriro says there are three key issues regarding Harare's water shortages and what can be done.

"Firstly, in the short term it is about managing the inadequate resource well. This should be two-pronged -- water demand management by residents on one hand, and attending to water loss by city authorities on the other part," said Mr Toriro.

He said residents of Harare should be conscious of the fact that their water is inadequate and the only way it can be enough is by using less of the resource.

"This is the opposite of water cuts by authorities, which does not work because for as long as the residents do not co-operate, once the water service is restored, they will still waste the water," he added.

He said water loss caused by old leaking pipes and burst unattended pipes is also too high, at about 50 percent of the treated water.

"We need an accelerated pipe replacement programme complemented by swift reaction teams to repair burst pipes," he pointed out. Mr Toriro added that in the long term, the sewer reticulation network should be upgraded as well as building new water supply dams away from the Manyame catchment that has become highly polluted.

"We also need a medium- to long-term plan to reclaim the Manyame catchment by dealing with the sources of pollution," he added. While measures that include the sinking of boreholes have been put in place through funding by organisations like Unicef to at least manage the water challenges and curb the spread of diseases like cholera, Mr Toriro says this is not the solution.

"Boreholes are not a sustainable source of water for millions of residents.

"In the long run the water table falls and many of them become dry. They are also difficult to manage because they must be regularly tested and so on," he said.

He added that even with a fully functional Morton Jaffray waterworks, the water will still be insufficient.

"At the moment Harare can only at best supply half the 1400 megalitres required per day, and of this half, 50 percent is lost along the reticulation network. More can certainly be done and we hope with the recently talked-about Chinese loans, the infrastructure issues will be addressed soon," he added.

Kunzvi Dam, according to Mr Toriro, would go a long way in solving Harare's water problems, but will not constitute the full solution.

"It will also address the geographical challenge where suburbs in the north and east that are at the end of the current network tend to suffer the worst shortages by having sources at both ends of the city. In the long run, a sustainable solution is a combination of water demand management, technical solutions to attend to lost water, increased treatment capacity, and new dams," he pointed out.

Unicef chief of water, sanitation and hygiene Mr Kiwe Sebunya said Zimbabwe's urban water system was a complex one. "We are always in a dilemma, most sewage systems are waterborne. Raw sewage is flowing into dams that provide drinking water.

"If sewer rehabilitation is to be tackled, it needs enough water to have it flowing hence availability of water receive first priority," Mr Sebunya said during a media workshop on women and children reporting in Nyanga recently.

He, however, said channelling more resources towards water supply first before sewage reticulation would expose residents to diseases as raw sewage continued to flow along streets. "The situation is a complex one. There is a need for at least some little water to have the sewage flowing.

"Tackling the sewage when there is no water may result in blockages as the sewage fails to flow along the pipes," Sebunya added. Mr Sebunya urged authorities to rehabilitate the sewer reticulation as the water situation improves. "The reticulation systems in most urban areas are very old and require replacement at very huge costs," he said.

Mr Sebunya, however, said Unicef had not abandoned urban water programmes after launching the rural water programmes. "There is hope that we can get more resources for water and sanitation programmes in small towns. We are in the process of mobilising resources with some donors," he said. Mr Sebunya also said boreholes were not an appropriate long-term solution for water problems.

"Boreholes for urban areas were never an option as a source of clean water, but were only an emergency option during the 2008 and 2009 cholera outbreak," he said.

Instead, he revealed, there is need to push for the completion of the Kunzvi Dam project, which is a long term solution. Kunzvi Development Corporation recently secured US$375 million to build Kunzvi Dam and the construction of the dam is expected to begin late this year ending in 2015.

University of Zimbabwe senior lecturer in the Rural and Urban Planning department Mr Innocent Chirisa also described the water situation in Harare as complex.

"There are more problems underlying the issue than meets the eye. City of Harare is one out of many stakeholders in the water issue. Water is a politicised good. As long as the local authority is not in a position to out-manoeuvre the politics then it is in deep problem," he pointed out.

He said the technical solutions to Harare's water problems are very clear and have worked in many parts of the world.

"These should simply be adhered to. I don't have to expound on them given that textbooks on the subject have adequately dealt with such. I will deliberately be dodgy on the subject," he added.

Mr Chirisa also argued that what is needed in Harare is reticulated water.

"Boreholes were sunk as a stopgap measure because there was a crisis. Crises teach us to be innovative but not all innovation is meant to be a permanent solution.

"As long as there is little investment in the maintenance methodologies of the existing and proposed infrastructure, there will ever be challenges. Infrastructure, like babies, is easy to produce, but difficult to maintain," he said.

A Marlborough resident, Mr Tapiwa Mubonderi, said council should set up more purification plants, replace the water pipes and create new sources of raw water for the metropolitan.

"The sewer system should also be repaired and capacity of treating sewage increased so that we can dispose of the waste we produce," he said.

He added that council could consider looking for money by entering into agreements with financiers in countries that do not have a financial embargo such as South Africa, India, China, Russia or Brazil.

"There are also funds available within the city that if pooled appropriately could be used to improve infrastructure.

"In the past few years how much money has been spent by individuals and entities in making alternative water supply arrangements either as boreholes, bulk water tanks and water purification equipment? What is the quantum of all these funds? What could we have achieved if they had pooled those funds and used them to fix and upgrade Harare's ability to supply treated water? This illustrates that there is potential for use to get a good proportion of the funds required from within the city," he pointed out.

He added: "However, most people do not want to contribute to collective purses because there are reservations on the capability of the city to effectively manage those funds.

"It requires that the citizens of Harare at the next election should choose fit and proper councillors and not vote blindly or the council will not have the capacity to execute its mandate."

Mr Mubonderi also suggested that the City of Harare could approach banks and the financial community and get them involved in a finance vehicle that would be used to find long-term financing for parts of the water project.

"Bankers who live and work in Harare would want to use their expertise to make it possible to have a safe and consistent water supply. This is will only come about and play ball with a competent council at the helm of the city.

"The work to replace the pipes must be given to local companies, so we construct and install the required infrastructure. This is pertinent for Zimbabwe as we face a perennial unemployment problem. We can make products on our own," he proposed.

He also said most of the materials required for water systems are available locally while foreign partners could be involved in terms of technology transfer and capital injections or as equity partners for the creation of local capacity.

"There is the controversial issue of water subsidies being pushed by central government, at best it's a noble gesture but could be the escalation of electioneering for next year. Until there is a significant change in the macroeconomic conditions, our population is severely compromised in its ability to pay for water services. If a pay as you go system is adopted it will risk public health, as it will expose vulnerable members of the community to unsafe water.

"Our Government cannot afford to pay for the water for its citizens, imagine what the old, disabled, ill and redundant members of our community can afford. "The idea of everyone paying for services is good and sounds profitable but it is only possible in an economy with higher per capita incomes," said Mr Mubonderi.

BY ROSELYNE SACHITI@allafrica.com

African Trip About Water, Hope and a Prayer

                               Grant Perryman and his wife, Donita, share a laugh as they describe their experiences on missionary trips to Ghana in Africa.

Ric Small had seen the photographs. He heard the tales of woe. He and his wife even sponsored an orphan.

But when he took the roughly 7,600-mile trek to Uganda for the first time, he couldn't handle the truth.

The extreme poverty. The futile efforts to obtain even a cup of fresh water. Deadly diseases.

"I was not ready emotionally to see that," said Small. "I was just a blubbering mess for two weeks."

That was just last year. Small, under the umbrella of the nonprofit Hope4Kids, recently returned from his second trip to Uganda.

"At least I wasn't crying the whole time," said Small, a Benicia Police Department chaplian. "I felt I was more in tune with what's going on."

Good as gold

It was, said

Small, a lot about the water. A life-sustaining resource for Americans who waste a great deal of it, it's as good as gold in Uganda.

Which is why Small not only participated in a Walk4Water in Benicia that raised $40,000 to build wells in Uganda, he and his wife, Kema, sponsored one $10,000 well by themselves.


"In America, you let water run so it can get warm enough so you can take a shower or shave, or cold enough to drink," Small said. "In Uganda, they don't even understand when they start pumping water out of a well and it comes out clean. They're not sure they can trust it. And they have to be taught not to go back to the original source."


"They have to walk miles to pick up water that looks like coffee with cream in it,"

Small said. "And along the way, young girls would be raped and attacked and that some young children, if they don't come back with water or be on time to school, would be caned. It broke my heart."


Small said he never regretted paying for a well himself.


"To know you a made a difference to 500 or more people so they could have clean water is humbling," he said. "When they dedicated the well, I was just in tears. It was amazing."




Former gangbanger


Small could talk from experience, which he was more than happy to share with two local pastors preparing for their first journeys to Africa. Michael Mau of Benicia Fellowship and René Mitchell and Mike Brown of First Baptist Church are part of a team of 10 heading to Ghana from Oct. 29 to Nov. 16.


Mitchell, Chicago-born and raised as the son of Puerto Rican parents, runs the Hispanic church at First Baptist and is ready for his first trip to Ghana.


"People ask what I'm going to do in Africa. The same thing I do in Vallejo. I bring the gospel to the people," Mitchell said. "I do think it'll be good for some people (on the team) to get out of their comfort zone. You can't shower or eat like you normally eat. You're not able to drink the water and it's hot there and you'll want to drink a lot of water. It's going to be really, really awesome for some people. Hopefully, they can take what they see there and use it in our area."

Mitchell knows about overcoming adversity. A former gang-banger and drug dealer, he was even kicked out of Catholic seminary school despite straight "A's."


"I was a hothead with a chip on my shoulder, raised without a dad, I could go on and on," Mitchell said.


Mitchell was selling drugs via his job working with a well-known delivery service when he became enlightened. His supervisor introduced Mitchell to a colleague who said, "I heard about René Mitchell. We need more people like him."


"At that exact moment, I felt like an ant," Mitchell said. "Nobody should be like me."


He quit drugs. And got to prayer meetings. It was tough to handle.


"These little old ladies would pray for me and I would cry," Mitchell said. "I couldn't figure out what to do."




Church builder


Mitchell, 49, married at 22, worked for Honeywell for 13 years, and helped build two churches.

He said he became a pastor almost by accident.


"I never wanted to work in the ministry. I thought being a pastor was a joke," he said. "You can't make any money, and people hate you."


And here he is, 12 years in Vallejo, where he started feeding the hungry with pastors Brown and Al Marks in the middle of the night.


"I didn't like getting up at that time. I like staying up until that time," Mitchell smiled.


Mitchell met pastor Alfred Akumbie of Ghana 11 years ago during a Vallejo visit to Mitchell's home.


"He ran up my phone bill," Mitchell said. "We laugh about it now."


Akumbie often returned here, but Mitchell never returned the favor. Until now.


"I've had other things to do," Mitchell said. "And when I start stuff, I like to finish it."


Again, Mitchell said, it's the water. He's committed to raising enough money to build one well.


"Every 15 seconds, someone dies there for lack of food. People die from lack of fresh water," Mitchell said.


It's about survival, he noted.


"We're not going to build them Taj Mahals. We're not bringing them washing machines," Mitchell said. "We want them to be healthy and have water."


Mitchell is thrilled to bring others from here.


"I want them to understand how blessed they are to live in Vallejo," he said.


As a rock 'n roll musician in the 1960s and '70s, Mau, 62, would tour in a bus across the United States, Mexico and Europe. Never did he get close to Africa. Or a 20-hour Jeep jungle ride.


"It's going to be an interesting deal," Mau said.


Mau said yes, work needs to be in his own community. Then he cited Scripture, believing help should be expanded "further out and then to the ends of the Earth."




Daily threats


Mau chuckled that in Solano County, "we worry about garbage rates going up" while in other parts of the world there's the daily threat of malaria, typhoid and yellow fever.


The preparation has been challenging, he said.


"I've never had so many shots in my life," Mau said, adding that his wife will remain home in Benicia.


"At least there's someone who has brains in our family," Mau grinned.


Americans, he said, would not be prepared for what Africans deal with daily.


"They send their children off to get water somewhere and come back carrying huge pots of dirty water that's no good," Mau said. "The way these people live, we would not survive in an environment like that."


Mau said he's excited about the trip's final days in the village where his team is headed.


"They're going to get fresh, clean water and it will change their lives and lifestyles," he said.


It's impossible to truly comprehend the threat of malaria or vital efforts to get fresh water unless you're there, Small said.


"You can see it on a TV commercial and say, 'Oh, that's horrible. Those poor kids.' Then the game comes back on," Small said.


Advice to anyone contemplating a trip to help a Third World nation?


"Go," Small said. "If you're any kind of religious person or humanitarian, go. We need to pay more attention. You're not going to change the world. But if you can help one person a day, that's huge."




By Rich Freedman@timesheraldonline.com

Zimbabwe's Troubled Waters: Chemical Pollution in the Marange District

Thousands of Birchenough Bridge residents and patients at a local hospital, downstream of Zimbabwe’s notorious Marange diamond fields, are panicking after a recent report suggested they may be at risk of developing health complications such as cancer from metal-poisoned water.

A recent study, commissioned by the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association (ZELA) and conducted by the University of Zimbabwe (UZ),revealed that the Save river, from which water supplies are drawn, as well as the Singwizi and Odzi tributaries, are laden with dangerous chemicals.

The report lays the blame for the hazardous pollution on diamond-mining operations, and ZELA alongside local villagers have applied to the High Court to stop three diamond mining companies from discharging polluting materials into the rivers. At least one of the three firms has already rejected the scientific findings, however, and given the vested interests in these companies by influential individuals as well as the currently ineffective system of punishing polluting companies, there is concern over what can actually be done to tackle the issue.

Testing the water

Three diamond mining companies – Anjin, Diamond Mining Corporation, and Marange Resources – operate along the rivers and for over two years, the Odzi, Singwizi and Save have been visibly muddy, betraying their pollution.

According to the UZ report, a range of elements found in the water could prove a serious hazard to people’s health. The heavy concentrations of chromium and nickel – both constituents of a chemical compound used in diamond extraction – “are potentially carcinogenic agents” warns the study. Levels of iron – another element used in diamond extraction – exceed World Health Organisation standards and “suggest that the local population could be at risk of iron poisoning”. High levels of fluoride could lead to dental and skeletal flourosis, and high bacterial contamination poses “an immediate risk of outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid”, reads the report.

If true, the lives and livelihoods of thousands of households could be in danger as water from these rivers is used just for drinking but to irrigate crops, bathe, and care for livestock. Some of this water could also be being piped on to Mozambique, and river additionally passes through the 6,000 hectare Save Conservancy, a wildlife sanctuary often heralded as a model for conservation.

Responding to the report

A provincial official from Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), the government agency responsible for the country’s water supplies, spoke to Think Africa Press on condition of anonymity. He insisted that the water supplied to Birchenough Bridge was safe as it would have been filtered by sand as ZINWA’s pipes tapped the water from the river bed.

Pressed on whether they had run tests to determine the nature of the water pollutants and apply the requisite chemicals, he claimed they had. And he expressed ignorance of the UZ study. Enquiries to ZINWA for its official position went unanswered.

On the other hand, Manicaland’s Provincial Health Director, Tapiwa Murambi, expressed confidence in the university’s findings, on which the ministry said it planned to act.

Kingstone Chitotombe, provincial manager for the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), also agreed that, while his organisation had not independently verified the UZ report, the three diamond mining companies operating in Marange were polluting the rivers. Chitotombe told Think Africa Press that the EMA was contemplating starting legal proceedings against the polluting companies. He believed a court ruling would have far reaching consequences and that even a verbal warning following a conviction would elicit a favourable response.

Treading political waters

Chitotombe could, however, be being overly optimistic. On previous occasions of being found polluting, the mining companies have done little to change their practices, and powerful individuals with vested interests in the companies could make changing the status quo tough.

It is notable that earlier this year, journalists Andrew Mambondiyani, Sydney Saize, and two other colleagues were charged with “criminal nuisance” for investigating the pollution and interviewing locals.

In July, after publishing the UZ report, ZELA contacted mining company Anjin to request the pollution stop. The response three days later denied the allegations. “Honestly speaking,” the letter read, “it happened one or two times. Pumps broke down and little recycled water was not pumped away in time, resulting in the overflow of the water from the ponds, which the company has received criticism and was fined by EMA.”

The letter from Anjin was signed by Brigadier-General Charles Tarumbwa, a senior official with the mining company. And, according to London-based NGO Global Witness, he is not the only high-ranking official from the ruling ZANU-PF party in Zimbabwe’s military and security forces holding key positions in Marange diamond mining companies. Former Air Vice Marshall Robert Mhlanga chairs the board of Mbada Diamonds, for example, while members of Anjin’s board include the permanent secretary of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defence, two commissioners of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, and current and former officers of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, say Global Witness.

Changing the tide?

Another impediment to improving pollution is the currently ineffective system of punishing polluting firms. Mbada Diamonds is a joint venture between state-owned Marange Resources Ltd and Grandwell Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of the South African company Reclam. In its 2011 annual report, Reclam explained that it was more cost-effective to pollute and pay the necessary fines than to invest in pollution control.

It reads: “Fees are assessed for exceeding agreed limits on emissions and effluents. Currently these fees are generally small in relation to the cost of environmental protection equipment and it is generally less expensive to pay the fees than to install anti-pollution devices. Further, the applicable laws do not generally require clean-up of environmental pollutants, and when clean-up is required, the applicable laws provide no guidance as to the extent to which the clean-up must be carried out.”

The effect of river pollutants on the health of thousands of individuals, livelihoods of thousands of households, and the environment could be disastrous, and are indeed already being felt. Many now accept that the Marange diamond mining companies – Anjin, Diamond Mining Corporation, and Marange Resources – are responsible for much of the hazardous waste and that they are not fulfilling the obligations that come with operating upstream of water supplies many Zimbabweans thousands depend on. Outrage and action is growing, but holding polluters accountable could prove difficult.

BY BERNARD CHIKETO@thinkafricapress.com

Nigeria, Ravaged by Flood

In the face of the ongoing flooding tragedy in many parts of the country, Sulaimon Olanrewaju provides an insight into the tragedy and the efforts made to contain it.

IT was a foretold disaster which could have been mitigated had the warning been heeded and immediate remedial steps taken. But because the prediction was ignored and the suggested precautionary steps discountenanced, the foretold monstrous flooding came and left in its trail death, destruction and depression. At the last count, according to the Red Cross, at least 148 people have been killed by floods in different parts of the country, over 64,000 have been rendered homeless while millions have been plunged deeper into poverty.

On Saturday August 4, 2012, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), in a press statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Eleazar Obende, alerted the nation to the impeding “above normal” rainfall which might result in devastating flooding incidents in 12 states of the federation.

NIMET said that it had observed a “wetter-than-normal soil surface moisture and groundwater conditions in some parts of the country over the past 12 months”, adding that the effect of this would be “prospects of the occurrence of above-normal rainfall which may lead to surface run-off. The flooding incidents that may accompany high rainfall events in and around Lagos, Ogun, Delta, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states will leave in its trail devastation and destruction reminiscent of similar incidents recorded in some parts of the country some months ago.”

The agency, therefore, appealed to the states to clear all water channels to reduce the effect of the predicted flooding.
     
NIMET also informed the nation that River Niger would overflow its bank, adding that this posed a serious threat to those living close to the river’s plain. The agency warned of the risk of unprecedented flooding of the River Niger plains due to water from the Kainji and Jebba hydro dams. As a follow up on the prediction of NIMET, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) issued an immediate evacuation order to residents along the plains of the River Niger. It also impressed it on state governments to move communities along the plains of the river to higher grounds.

Reactions to the prediction

According to Mallam Yushau Shuaib, Head Public relations, NEMA, his agency, after the prediction by NIMET intimated state governments with the forecast and its implications to the people. However, despite being told of the looming danger, many state governments were either too confused to act immediately on the matter or chose to look away from the impending problem until they were confronted with it. Many of them even failed to inform their citizens of the imminent danger. So, they failed to take preventative steps and are forced to embark on emergency measures.

Even the residents, those who got to know about the prediction, rather than act on the information they had, opted to continue with their lives as if what they were told did not matter. Some even resorted to fasting and praying to ward off the flooding.

“Some were offering sacrifices to the rivers, they believed that their sacrifices would stop the rivers from overflowing,” said Shuaib.

The effect of these was that in many states, both the government and the people were caught napping. Hence, the devastation was massive and crippling.

According to Dr Ebenezer Alade, Coordinator, Association for Better Environment (ABE), the federal and state governments should have immediately swung into action on getting to know about the prediction of the agencies.

“One of our major problems in this country is our failure to leverage on science and technology to combat environmental challenges. Everyone knows that all over the world, the climate is changing. So, it is foolhardy to expect that the weather this year will follow the pattern of last year.

The climate keeps changing and the responsibility of the government and the people is to prepare for these changes, especially when, with the help of modern technology, we are able to forecast looming problems. Immediately the prediction was made, the government should have swung into action to free the drainage and the water channels to allow for free flow of water. All the rivers should have been dredged to reduce the possibility of flooding. Those living in river plains should have been moved to higher grounds. If all these had been done, the flooding would have happened but the devastation would have been minimal,” he said.

The ABE coordinator added that the governments should take a cue from advanced countries which were deploying technology to minimise the destructive tendencies of climate change on their people.

“Science and technologies are a means of improving our lives and it is high time we began to make use of these. If the government would spend a fortune to set up and fund agencies to monitor the climate and to advise it on this, why would the same government fail to take the advice of these agencies? So, we need to have a change of disposition to reports by specialised bodies so that we can get the best out of science and technology,” Alade added.

Shuaib agreed with Alade that climate change was mainly responsible for the excessive flooding.

He said the flooding in some parts of the country such as Lagos and Ibadan was caused by excess rain occasioned by climate change.

“Climate change is primarily responsible for the flooding,” Shuaib said. “If not why should a place like Jigawa which is very close to Republic of Niger, an arid land be experiencing flooding?”

He added that the heavy rains caused River Niger to overflow right from its roots which resulted in a spill that caused extensive damage in different parts of the country.

Shuaib continued, “With River Niger overflowing, some dams also overflowed and if not for the steps taken by the authorities, the result would have been more devastating. With the dams filled, it would be dangerous to leave them like that, so the authorities came up with a systematic way of discharging the water because they cannot afford to let the dams break. Water from both Shiroro and Kainji dams had to be discharged and that was partly responsible for the flooding in Kogi State. We knew this was going to happen. Hence, our call to people to vacate the river plains but many people chose to ignore the call.”

He added that the same thing happened in Adamawa State where the opening of a Cameroonian dam caused flooding which resulted in the death of a number of people.     

“We had to agree to the gradual release of water from the dam because if we have to wait for the dam to collapse, given its speed of 120km per hour, nobody can say what the extent of the damage would be. We only insisted that the Cameroonian authorities should inform us before releasing water from the lake,” Shuaib said.  

Effects of flooding

With the ‘business as usual’ posture of the government and the people, the floods came with not much in place to counter their ferocious onslaught. From Lagos to Calabar, Lokoja to Sokoto, the rains descended with seeming bottled up anger followed by devastating flooding.

Last Thursday, Lagos experienced over eight hours of rain which almost submerged areas such as Okota, Isolo, Jakande Estate, Ijora, Lekki, Victoria Island and some parts of Ikeja. The long hours of heavy flooding did not only shut many residents of the state in, it also shut many out as it resulted in long traffic snarl since many roads such as the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway were almost completely cut off by the flood. 

However, although the waters swept away some vehicles and other valuables, the flooding did not record any loss of life but that was not the experience in June when excessive downpour caused the bridge linking Lagos and Ogun states at Ayobo, in Ayobo/Ipaja Local Council Development Area to submerge with six adults and a child reportedly carried away while attempting to cross from Ogun to Lagos State. The effect of flooding in Kano has been worse as no fewer than 19 persons were confirmed, many others injured and more than more than 15, 000 people displaced as a result of flooding in the state between August and September.

In Zamfara State more than 50 persons lost their lives in various flood and windstorm disasters in the state this year alone, while a minimum of 50 people also died in Jos flooding. That has been the pattern across the country with no state spared of the debilitating consequences of the flooding. The number of people that have been displaced this year alone is a cause for concern.

Impending food shortage

Apart from destroying dwelling and religious places, flooding has also destroyed a sizeable portion of farmlands in the country so much that the Federal Government had to raise the alarm about the possibility of food shortage.

While addressing State House correspondents at the end of a Federal Executive Council meeting recently, Minister of Environment, Hajia Hadiza Mailafia, revealed that over 5,000 farmlands had been destroyed by the ravaging floods across the country.

According to her, “the consequences of the floods are that there are huge losses of farmlands, there are likely threats to food security, we are likely going to have challenges that have to do with the health of the people in some areas. The flooding we are experiencing in the country do not in any way fall into what you can term man made. This is a natural phenomenon that cuts across the globe. With the technology in places like the United States, they still had the flooding there, in China and even our neighbour Niger with an arid land.

“For anyone to think that government has not done well or that there was something that we needed to do that we have not done is a little bit awesome because there is a limit to which you can fight nature. When you have in a country where well over 5,000 farmlands washed away, then there is cause for attention. It is of national interest. So, all what we are saying is that it is a national emergency. It calls for sober reflection.”

With farmlands destroyed and farmers displaced, food supply challenge has never been scarier.

Health hazard

With flooding usually comes water-borne diseases and the Red Cross has warned of the possibility of an outbreak of cholera. Throwing light on the possibility of the outbreak of cholera, Dr Austin Abel said the unhygienic attitude of many Nigerians coupled with the flooding would put them at the risk of cholera.

Abel, Medical Director of Sunshine Infirmary, explained that “the country is being flooded and the probability is that the source of water consumed by many of our compatriots would be polluted and this would definitely result in cholera and other water-borne diseases.”

He added that the effect of the pollution would have been minimal if the people were ordinarily hygienic “but you and I know that many of our people, especially in the rural areas, have little respect for hygiene and this is why there is likely going to be an outbreak of cholera unless the government moves in to arrest the trend.”

He thereafter called on the government to move in and save the rural poor and those displaced by the floods and in camps from the scourge of cholera by providing them with hygienic environment which would help them to ward off cholera.

“If we do not manage the matter very well, we are likely going to have a situation in which there will be more deaths from the after effect of flooding than from flooding itself,” Abel said.

Collapse of infrastructure

A huge chunk of the nation’s infrastructure is affected by the floods. Currently, the Lokoja-Abuja highway has collapsed. Many communities have had their electricity supply cut off as a result of floods which washed away electricity poles and cables. A number of masts belonging to telecommunication organisations have also been destroyed. Many school buildings, bridges and roads have also been washed away by the flood.

State governments have been crying out that the extent of the devastation in their state is beyond what they can cope with and have been calling for the intervention of the Federal Government as well as philanthropists.

Poverty

Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been displaced consequent on the flooding. The effect of this is that many of them will not be able to earn any decent income as they are majorly camped in facilities provided by the government far away from their places of abode. It means the displacement precipitated by the flooding will worsen the poverty situation in the country. With over 90 per cent of the nation’s population said to be currently living on less than two dollars a day.

It also means that the poverty reduction programme of the government will suffer a setback as resources will have to be diverted to fixing destroyed infrastructure rather than for empowering the citizens.

Commenting on this, Alade said “There is a link between the environment and poverty. There is no doubt that those who have been displaced by the flood cannot earn any income and they now have to depend on charity. But that is not the end of the story. What happens to their children’s education? It also means that their education would be stunted for as long as they remain on camp. For me, the only consolation will be if the government learns from this experience and works out a means of countering a repeat.”

By Sulaimon Olanrewaju@tribune.com.ng