Nigeria, Togo, Benin and Ghana put the population on maximum alert
Oct. 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The countries on the southwestern coast of Africa are preparing for the imminent arrival of the floods that have hit their northern neighbors for weeks amid an alarming lack of preparation due to lack of funds.
Nigeria, Togo, Benin and Ghana are warning their citizens to be on high alert following record rainfall last month in the neighboring Sahel region; torrential rains that left more than a thousand dead and more than five million affected.
The meteorologist at the Red Crescent Climate Center in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Kiswendsida Guigma, has warned that the region faces the double problem of poor drainage and rainfall above the historical average intensity.
“There is still the possibility that floods from the Sahel will flow towards southern countries. It depends on the intensity of the rains and how they are added to those that will occur on the coast,” he told Bloomberg. Cities with a lack of protection funds and poorly planned will suffer the brunt of these floods.
For example, and according to data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, coastal areas of Nigeria, including Lagos, Africa’s largest city with more than 25 million inhabitants, Benin and Togo, are expecting heavier rains of the usual this month. The Volta region in neighboring Ghana could also be affected.
Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency has put coastal cities on high alert for this month and next. Humanitarian organizations focus on “preventive action,” explained Benson Agbro, director of disaster management at the Nigerian Red Cross.
“It’s probably ten times cheaper to take those kinds of measures than to wait to respond after a flood has occurred,” according to Agbro. “More importantly, lives can be saved.” His organization, therefore, has launched this year a request for 10 million euros to finance its work in the most populous country in Africa.
Some Nigerian communities are carefully monitoring local rivers and are ready to raise the alarm and alert nearby households if levels rise too high, according to Agbro. Authorities are also watching weather data at emergency control centers across the country as “traditional and scientific methods” come together, he added. “As we speak, the Niger River is already flooded.”
The Oti River basin in Togo is also overflowing onto farms and roads, according to an official at the country’s protection agency, the Agence Nationale de la Protection Civile (ANPC); a threat compounded by rising levels of rivers flowing south.
In Togo and Ivory Coast, the latter country the world’s largest cocoa producer, authorities fear that spills from the Sahel could flow into their shared river systems. “Experts are monitoring water levels in the basins and making daily, weekly and seasonal forecasts to be prepared,” according to a spokesperson for the Abidjan-based meteorological service, Sodexam.
Additionally, deliberate releases of water from upstream dams can increase tension. Such measures, undertaken preventatively to protect a dam from bursting and causing much worse flooding, can also catch communities off guard if they are not well communicated.
Regional power company Semaf SA, which operates Mali’s hydroelectric plants, is set to release water from the Felou and Manatali dams along the Senegal River, which has reached record levels, potentially leaving northern Senegal vulnerable to flooding. downstream.
In nearby Burkina Faso, power company Sonabel is also examining the levels of the White Volta River to know when to open the floodgates at its Bagré dam. A release of water there could potentially affect people in northern Ghana.
“We have sensitized people to monitor the rising water level,” according to Ghana National Disaster Management Organization spokesperson George Ayisi. “We have identified churches, schools and other buildings that they can move to, away from the river banks.”
Add Comment