EMERGING CRISES IMPACT OF NIGERIA COUNTRY-WIDE FLOODING: AN OVERVIEW OF NIGERIA’S EXPOSURE, VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE

Abstract

Flooding has been one of the most frequent natural hazards that occur when there is an excessive flow of water that submerged land. In recent times, Nigeria has experience regular occurrence of flooding hence, this paper focused on examining the exposure, susceptibility, vulnerability and ways of up-scaling the resilience level of Nigerians. The paper relied on previous academic articles in achieving the aim. Some of the exposure factors identified are natural and anthropogenic in nature. These have led to crises like cholera outbreak, internal displacement, food scarcity and destruction of health facilities just to mention but few. The reasons for low resilience/high vulnerability of and susceptibility level of Nigerians include inadequate physical planning and preparedness and lack of full operationalization of disaster emergency management agency at the local government level. To this end, the paper suggested that investment in infrastructure that can withstand perennial flood and spatial planning of our cities. Equally, provision of early warning action campaign should be taken seriously. Finally, flood risk mapping to determine the area at risk should be the basis for all flood damage reduction programs.