Mr Tony, a retiree, planned to use his gratuity, plus his life savings and a high-interest loan to start a family business. His goal is to use the business not just to sustain him but to provide employment for his two sons who have been jobless since they graduated four years back.
Mr Tony contemplated establishing a filling station but with his knowledge of how social cost may impact on his private cost and the attendant risk of siting a filling station in a budding neighbourhood, he was left in a dilemma. With advice from business experts, Mr Tony considered building a shopping mall because the neighbourhood where he could secure land had high prospects for such development.
However, before he started the development, his friend reminded him that his piece of land is in proximity to a gas processing plant. He was unsure about what course of action he should embark on. He decided to search for a disaster risk map for the community, but he founds none. He continued with his business plan. Two years into operation, the community was swept by a flood. Most of the items in his mall were damaged. The roof was blown off. The growing business collapsed. Loans were to be repaid. Funds were limited.
Mr Tony is one of the many Nigerians affected by lack of adequate information on disasters.
Nigeria is affected by a couple of disasters; however, flooding is the most reported natural disaster in Nigerian literature. In 2012, Nigeria experienced a series of horrifying floods which killed 363 people and displaced over 2.1 million people. Similarly, in 2017, floods affected an estimated 250,000 Nigerians and displaced about 92,000 people. Earlier flood incidences in the country include Ogunpa, Oyo State (1982); Lagos Bar Beach (2001); Shiroro and Kaduna (2003); Gombe (2004); and Jalingo (2005). The Council for Foreign Relations noted that uncontrolled urbanization is a leading cause of floods in Nigeria.
Some communities in Nigeria have also experienced landslides as a result of floods. In Agwagune community in Cross Rivers State, landslides displaced over 1200 households and affected about 10,600 people as of 2015. According to the National Emergency Management Agency, the landslide also buried about nine people alive. Landslides have also been reported in Agwu, Enugu State and the incidence had tremendous negative economic impacts on the community.
Beyond these incidences of natural disasters is an alarming array of human-induced disasters. The recent Lagos explosion that killed at least 17 people and damaged more than 50 houses is one of the many cases. Other series of oil-related explosions have also caused varying degrees of impacts in Nigeria. For example, fire incidences involving tankers have resulted in several deaths in Nigeria. A tanker fire incidence in Rivers State in 2012 resulted in 100 deaths. In 2019, at least 50 people died in Benue state from another tanker fire incidence. The 2018 Otedola bridge fire accident is another tanker fire situation that caused considerable human and material losses.
Electricity cables also pose considerable disaster risk in Nigeria. Nigeria Electricity hub in 2019 reported four different incidences where high tension electricity cables caused considerable losses in the country. The web is also full of different news on electricity-related deaths in the country. According to All Africa, this kind of disasters is a product of the failure of residents to comply with the regulation. They could also have been caused by the failure of development control agencies across the country.
Development Restriction and Access to Disaster Risk Information
A convenient way to evaluate disasters in Nigeria is to inquire into the extent of public awareness of potential hazards and risks as well as the regulatory measures in place to forestall these disasters. For example, one may ask whether the impact of the recent Lagos Explosion could have been mitigated if the physical planning authorities in the state had controlled development in the high-risk Abule Ado community that is laid with explosible gas pipes. One may also like to understand whether land developers across the country can assess the different high risks areas where development should be discouraged. In addition, the extent of enforcement of development control measures raises other questions.
Ordinarily, physical planning authorities, disaster and emergency agencies, and meteorological and hydrological agencies should help reduce disaster risks in rural and urban communities. In Nigeria, physical planning is a shared responsibility of the three tiers of government. At the three levels, physical planning authorities are mandated to control development, regulate land development, and prevent disasters. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) also has the mandate of disaster prevention and mitigation. Other agencies, such as the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), have mandates related to disaster prevention in Nigeria.
Literature suggests that at the heart of Nigeria’s increasing disasters is the ineffectiveness of development restrictions. Poorly planned and managed urban areas, which are proliferating the country are the root causes of many incidences of disaster in the country. Possibly, these planning and management problems are compounded by the lack of a centrally collated and publicly available disaster risk map in the country. For instance, in a deep dive by DATAPHYTE through the website addresses of the Federal Ministry of Environment; Federal Ministry of Works and Housing; Lagos State Lands Bureau; National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency; NEMA; and NOSDRA, disaster risk information were very scanty.
Despite the very scanty disaster risk information, NEMA has a disaster surveillance map which was last updated in 2013. Also, the agency periodically provides warnings on possible disaster risks. The deep dive also found a website that mapped Nigerian pipelines. However, public information on disasters is not readily available. To compound the situation, Nigerians appear to be nonchalant about disaster warning and often, they do not take caution even when information is available.
A Clue from Developed Economies
Flooding is Canada’s most common and costly natural hazard. While the reduction of the risk of flood-related disasters in the country has been an explicit policy priority, citizens are provided with a wide range of public data on the subject. For instance, Canada’s Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction has a specific mandate to confront the alarming increase in losses caused by natural disasters and work to reduce deaths, injuries and property damage. To achieve its mandate, the Institute is committed to the development and communication of disaster prevention knowledge. Homeowners are helped to identify natural hazards that threaten their homes. Similarly, the country has different disaster maps which are publicly accessible.
A similar open data model operates in Australia. From the Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub, citizens can access the timeline of disasters in the country and also acquire the knowledge that can help them made better disaster mitigation decisions. The Risk and Impact Analysis Group of Australia’s geoscience division develop and publish a periodic report as part of its commitment to disaster mitigation in the country. The United States also has a disaster risk map that is publicly accessible. Other countries such as Japan and South Korea also have disaster risk maps.
An Open Data Approach to Disaster Reduction in Nigeria
Using the open data approach which emphasizes access and usability of data, Nigeria can significantly reduce the series of disasters that affect the country. Open data principle recommends that important data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control.
In simple terms, public data, particularly on hazards and risks, should be available and accessible to all Nigerians. Open data is a tool for accountability in governance and suggests that availability and accessibility of data can inform better individual and public decisions. Thus, it is envisaged that prioritizing access to data on hazards and risks in Nigeria would improve the disaster outlook of the country.
To achieve this, effort should be made to develop a repository to collate various disaster risks in the country. A disaster risk map can also be developed and circulated to show areas where development should be prohibited and areas with significantly higher disaster risks. Land developers should be encouraged to consult this disaster risk map before carrying out development. The map should also guide the enforcement of development restrictions in urban and rural communities across the country. Also, the various development regulatory agencies, as well as the disaster management agencies and their affiliates should consider collaborating with the national orientation agency to increase the reach of the disaster risk map.