Driven by torrential rains and made worse by infrastructure failures, floods in Central and West Africa have been exceptionally bad this year. In Nigeria last week, the Alau dam near the city of Maiduguri in Borno state collapsed, releasing a tidal wave of water on the city and surrounding areas. Excess rainwater was the cause of the breach that has killed more than 265 people. In Chad, another 487 people have also lost their life due to flooding and heavy rain over the last months.
Though climate change is playing a significant part in the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather in the two regions, the flooding is not new, and vulnerability is growing. UNU-EHS Visiting Scientist Dr. Olasunkanmi Okunola was featured in a New York Times article covering the floods in Africa and the growing corresponding humanitarian challenges.
“The impact of climate change is what we’re seeing right now,” Dr. Okunola said in the article. “There is no way we can prevent major disasters from happening, but there are steps we can take to lessen the effect.” He offered that improvements to critical infrastructure and early-warning systems are important in reducing the severity of the impacts from the floods.
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