By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
Anyone paying attention to the recent flooding at Ijebu Ode in Ogun State Nigeria will agree that we are yet to find solutions to this consequence of climate change. Not only have we ignored simple mitigation, adaptation and response, no thanks to our habit and disdain for environmental issues, we are not even keen in observing simple safety measures such as cleaning of canals, drainage and proper disposal of waste materials.
It is either we think flooding is a government problem or we have become fatalistic.
Let it be known that there is no natural immunity to catastrophes and disasters let’s we become overwhelmed. I must say that one of the curious tragedies of modern innovations is that we have come to accept disaster and catastrophe as an act of God.
This condition make us helpless and vulnerable to accept any situation nature throws up. It has become a vital segment of our lives and livelihoods.
We are going ahead through our inaction to create environment and sundry things which is an unfortunate doctrine. The consequences of flooding has been the ever frequent destruction by natural disasters in every sector in the world.
We tend to neglect prevention and response and endanger lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities through exposure to the unpreparedness of response and mitigation of responders .
The sad thing is that there is nothing new here, everything has been said at different fora. But they need re emphasising.
Research have shown that if we spend five dollars for prevention we save lives and livelihoods worth ten thousand dollars.
Therefore, if the above ugly and disturbing flooding trends must be changed, the institutions, sub national governments concerned with support and cooperation of citizens must start making scapegoats of defaulters who deliberately desecrated the provisions of the Urban Planning Regulations.
Our collective and darling environment must not be allowed to degrade and degenerate into existential threat to lives and livelihoods
