File: In 2018, Ahmada West in Rivers State submerged where over 60 families were affected.

When the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NHISA), held its maiden news conference in Abuja on 4 February, its Director General, Clement Nze, advised all stakeholders to start preparing for the 2020 flooding season in order to avoid the ‘Fire Brigade Approach’.

In his words: “We are here to use this medium to inform Nigerians, stakeholders, the state governments in particular and individuals that this is the right time you can prepare for flooding.

“The state government and local government areas should avoid what we call generally the ‘Fire Brigade Approach’ when the rain is already here.

He added: “So various governments of Nigeria should begin to prepare for possible flooding for 2020, open up the drainages, or create drainage paths where there are none.

“Remove the structures that are within the flood plains, and let there be adequate drainage paths,” he said.

Nze went down memory lane that on 21 January the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) released its 2020 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP). “In their prediction, they said the onset of the rainy season in the southern part of Nigeria will be starting from Feb. 24, and in the North, like Sokoto and Katsina, the earliest will be June 22.

“And then for the rainfall to begin to seize, because it starts seizing from the North, according to their prediction, from September 26, it will start seizing from the North downwards to the south, by Dec 28.

“This year the rainfall, from their prediction, will start early and end within the normal time, it means we are going to have a longer period of rainfall if the prediction goes through or things go on as predicted, there will be a longer spell of rainfall but we are monitoring it.”

He said: “Sometimes there can be flooding in Nigeria when the rains have stopped, for instance, last year when the rains had seized in Nigeria in early November, Cameroon opened the Laos Dam on the 10th of October.

“I kept calling the Cameroon authorities, asking did you release water, they said no, meanwhile their Laos Dam was open from October 10 to October 31, complete three weeks.

“Adamawa was submerged, a greater part of it, Taraba, Benue and eventually Kogi State, in the dry spell in Nigeria, when rainfall has seized, so when they open their dam and there is no rainfall in their own territory, flooding will occur.”

NHISA is responsible for monitoring all the major rivers in Nigeria, including the Transboundary Rivers Niger and Benue.

Its mandate, among others, is the provision of information and services required for efficient and sustainable management of the nation’s vast surface and groundwater resources including the security of life, property and water-related hazards such as floods and droughts