Whenever I hear about or think about experiencing a natural disaster, I quickly shun the thought with a loud “God forbid” because I have heard and seen what it can do, and I can't imagine myself being in such a situation. God abeg!
About nine years ago or thereabouts, the city I currently live in witnessed a heavy natural disaster, which was a flood, and it was so pronounced that I saw people—I mean people I know, not that I heard from the radio or read it on social media—evacuating their houses and landed properties to live homeless in parts of the land the flood didn’t affect. I was lucky to have stayed in the parts the flood didn’t get to, and I kept imagining myself experiencing that kind of hardship. Like, how do I go about packing all my belongings? What if I wasn’t around and came back to meet my house covered with water up to the window level, and my bed and other properties such as books and electronics sailing on the water? OMG!
During that time, we were forced to stop school because the school premises were flooded, and the crazy thing was that the water bodies had fishes in them and snakes too. So, people who were brave enough to pick up cutlasses to catch fishes were also killing snakes.
Now, imagine being bitten by snakes in the water while freely walking to cross to a safer land through the water?
In our church back then, a bridge was made from the road that had dry land to the entrance of the church. Luckily, the church building had a good DPC (damp proof course), so the height of the flood didn’t enter inside the church building. But the entire compound was flooded in such a way that one could not pass through unless the person was willing to swim. Also, the water body began to smell very badly because it wasn’t flowing into any drainage, and the ground was not absorbing it—or let me say, it had absorbed a lot and got tired.
Back then, once church closed, we would use up to two hours to pass through the bridge because it wasn’t a very wide one.
I have been around in this city, and that kind of flood has not occurred again in the city. The most recent one that occurred was just a small part that got overflown by the river in the area, and of course, it chased the people living there away.
**What can be done to remedy the situation?**
Flood is a natural disaster, and whenever it wants to occur, it happens on its own free will and doesn’t heed whatever measures man puts in place. But there is still a need for man to try to survive or reduce the effect of flood whenever it occurs, and that can be achieved by having drainage systems constructed in a way that water flows away easily whenever it comes.
In my hometown, the River Ethiope passes through our land, and we have drainage systems constructed and channeled to the river. And guess what? River Ethiope flows with high current, so no matter the volume of flood water from the drainage entering it, it flows away instantly. But this is possible only because of the network of drainage systems scattered all over the village.
Thanks for reading.
Photo used is mine