Floods worsened by climate change are wreaking havoc in Africa

It’s always the same story: the Niger River overflows its banks and floods his home for weeks on end until he can return to assess the damage.

The house then needs to be cleaned, repaired, fumigated and repainted until the next monsoon.

Flooding is almost certain in the Lokoja area in Nigeria’s Kogi state, where Africa’s third-longest river flows into its main tributary, the Benue.

But across large swathes of Africa, climate change has disrupted weather patterns and made flooding much more severe, especially this year.

Devastating floods threaten the survival of millions of people on the continent. Homes were destroyed and crops destroyed, threatening regional food security.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), heavy rains and severe flooding affected an estimated 6.9 million people in West and Central Africa in 2024.

“Very, very bad”

Lokoja residents and officials said floods first became more severe in Kogi State in 2012 and have hit the area every year since then.

In 2022, Nigeria’s worst flooding in a decade killed more than 500 people and displaced 1.4 million.

Sandra Musa, emergency management adviser to the Kogi State governor, said flooding this year had not yet reached 2022 levels, but warned it was “very, very bad”.

“Normally at this time of year the water levels drop, but here they are rising again,” she told AFP, estimating that the floods had affected about two million people in the state.

Fatima Bilyaminu, a 31-year-old mother and shop owner, can only reach her home in the Adankolo area of ​​Lokoja by boat because of the water.

The swollen river rises almost to the windows, and water hyacinths float past the crumbling building.

“I lost everything. My bed, a padded chair, a wardrobe, kitchen equipment,” she told AFP.

With no money to rent a house elsewhere, she has no choice but to continue living in the small concrete building and renovating it, flood after flood.

Damage and displacement

Africa bears the brunt of climate change despite accounting for only about four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent report by the World Meteorological Organization.

This year is set to overtake 2023 and become the world’s hottest on record.

“This year has been unusual in terms of rainfall and many extreme events, which is one of the hallmarks of climate change,” said Aida Dionge-Nyang of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In the Sahel region bordering the Sahara Desert, the volume, intensity and duration of rainfall was “unprecedented,” Amadou Diakite of Mali’s meteorological service said.

Some regions of Niger received 200 percent more rain than in previous years, according to the national weather service. The waters have threatened the historic center of Agadez, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in the northern desert.

Heavy rains since July have killed at least 576 people and affected 1.9 million people, more than 10 percent of the population, along the Chadian border, according to a report published by UN OCHA.

In neighboring Cameroon, the U.N. said heavy rains destroyed more than 56,000 homes and flooded tens of thousands of hectares of crops.

Floodwaters passed through the capital of Conakry in Guinea, and floods in Monrovia have renewed debate about building another city to serve as Libera’s capital.

Entire areas of Mali’s capital Bamako were flooded, causing waste and septic tanks to seep through the streets.

In August, heavy rains caused the roof of Askia’s centuries-old tomb in the Malian city of Gao to collapse.

Several countries have delayed the start of the school year due to floods.

“Keep getting worse”

“It used to be a ten-year flood cycle and now we’ve moved to an annual cycle,” said Clare Barnes, a researcher at the Center for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London.

“If we continue to burn fossil fuels, the situation will only get worse,” she said.

Scientists warn that as global temperatures rise, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events will increase.

Experts estimate that by 2030, up to 118 million Africans already living in poverty will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat.

Building along river banks also poses a risk, said Youssouf Sane of Senegal’s meteorological agency, urging governments to think about the relationship between climate change and urbanization.

But the IPCC’s Dionge-Niang said the only way to deal with extreme weather is to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

“This is not about the region, but about all of humanity,” she said.

© 2024 AFP