Every year, the rains return to Anambra State with a familiar, devastating rhythm. Rivers rise. Homes are submerged. Farmlands are washed away. Roads are cut off. And communities from Ogbaru, Anambra West, Awka North to Idemili and Onitsha are left counting losses of life and property, as well as livelihoods.
Last Monday, another of such sad incident added to such unwanted statistics when a death was reported of a tricycle rider, popularly called keke, in the Ifite Area of the Awka Capital City. According to eye witnesses, during the heavy rain of last Monday night, August 8, one of the heaviest this year, the keke driver had tried to rescue a woman who was almost being swept off the road by flash flood at the Book Foundation Area of Ifite Awka. After rescuing the woman, the man was not so lucky as he was swept off by the flood. His lifeless body was only recovered the next morning at Miracle Junction at same Ifite.
Flooding in Anambra is thus, no longer what can be called a seasonal inconvenience. It has become a humanitarian and economic crisis, in that businesses are also destroyed. Yet, year after year, response comes in the form of sandbags, relief trucks, and promises, only to watch the cycle repeat.
The death of the keke rider last Monday was not an isolated incident. We have had years of hearing about such incidents across the state. In the industrial city of Nnewi, about three people were reportedly swept away to their deaths in parts of the city during rains, just as in years past. Yet, solutions to these are yet to be found.
Anambra sits at the confluence of the Niger and Anambra Rivers which makes the state especially vulnerable to flooding. Still, geography alone is not to blame.
Three factors are compounding the crisis and they include: Climate change. Rainfall patterns are now heavier and less predictable, thus, overwhelming drainage systems designed decades ago.
Poor urban planning: Drainages are blocked by refuse and illegal structures. Wetlands and natural floodplains have been built on, leaving water nowhere to go.
Lack of coordinated mitigation: Dredging, embankments, and early warning systems exist on paper, but implementation is fragmented between federal, state, and local authorities.
The result? Displaced families, cholera outbreaks, destroyed schools, and farmers losing entire harvests. When Onitsha Main Market or rice farms in Anambra East are flooded, the economic shock is felt across the Southeast.
What then should be done? Tackling flooding requires moving from reaction to prevention. Anambra needs a 3-pronged approach, viz: Infrastructure that works. There must be desilting and expansion of drainages in urban centres like Awka, Nnewi, and Onitsha. The state should fast-track embankment works along the Niger and Anambra Rivers and partner with the Federal Government on the completion of permanent flood control projects. Retention basins and proper channelization cannot remain proposals.
Enforcement and civic responsibility: No amount of dredging will help if drainages remain refuse dumps. The Anambra State Waste Management Agency and local councils must enforce anti-dumping laws with real penalties. Town unions and landlords’ associations must support government to ensure that building on water ways and channels is stopped channels. Flooding is a collective problem, and it needs collective discipline.
Early warning, preparedness, and planning: the National Health Management Information System, NHMIS, and the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, must release timely flood forecasts and make them accessible in local languages. Communities in high-risk LGAs need evacuation plans, holding centres, and pre-positioned relief before the rains peak, not after. There should also be investments in flood-resilient agriculture and housing for riverine communities.
Waiting can be more damaging and we cannot keep budgeting for disaster response, while refusing to budget for disaster prevention. Every Naira spent on relief after the flood is more expensive than the Naira not spent on drainage today. More importantly, lives are being lost that no budget can replace.
Other states with similar river systems are investing in long-term solutions. Anambra, with its commercial strength and dense population, has even more to lose by delaying.
It therefore, behooves the Anambra State Government, to treat flood control as an emergency infrastructure project, not a seasonal programme. Release the master plan, fund it, and make agencies accountable for timelines.
Anambra’s flooding is a national issue. The Niger River does not recognize state borders. The Federal Government should release the funds and technical support owed.
As for the citizens, they should stop blocking drainages, stop building on floodplains and report violations, as well as demanding accountability from their representatives in the National Assembly.
The rains will come again next year. The only question is whether Anambra will be ready, or whether it will once again be wading through preventable tragedy.
