Recent Severe Flooding in Calabar, Nigeria: Causes, Consequences and Possible Remedies

Author(s): I. J. Ekpoh

Recent flood incidents in Calabar, Nigeria have overprinted their rhythms in terms of recurrence time and intensity, prompting serious concerns from the scientific community, the government and the general populace. This paper discussed the emerging weather anomalies in Calabar, Nigeria. Serious effort was made to impress the reader with evidence on the onset of climate change in Nigeria. The paper observed that recent, severe, yearly flooding in Calabar was a sign of global climate change which portends more rainfall for coastal towns in Nigeria. Also, the massive, urban renewal and expansion programmes that have been undertaken in the city during the last ten years, together with poor attitude to waste management, were implicated in the nightmare flood occurrences that have been witnessed in Calabar in the past three years (2011-2013). A number of recommendations were made towards mitigating the impact of flooding on society and environment, including the need to create more green-spaces and redesign the drainage network.

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