Urban Flood Management System Needed In My City

I recently wrote an article here on Hive where I discussed a little about my city (Bayelsa). My city is over 80-90% water and barely 10% land, which makes it one of the most prone to flood disasters in the country. The rivers of my city share boundaries with the Atlantic Ocean which is also one of the largest oceans in the world. This should give you a glimpse of the type of challenges being faced here.

In fact, it's now normal for us to expect the flood disaster to invade our environment every year, and the flood never disappoints or fails to make its invasion every year. The major problem with these flood disasters is that they usually come when we least expect them to come.

The way it happens is that the flood disaster could occur in both the winter or even the summer period when the weather across the whole country is still hot and dry. It has been observed that the reason for the invasion of this unannounced disaster is because the little 10% of land remaining in the state isn't managed properly.

You won't believe that most of the land areas of this city are either covered with buildings, industrial infrastructures, or pollutants, making erosion a constant occurrence in the state.

The planners of this city have not done a great job in the aspect of building drainages and water control systems, because this city is supposed to have all the flood prevention equipment and measures, given the fact that we are surrounded by too much water here.

But sadly, the small percentage of land in my city is mainly being used for deforestation, industrial activities and building of pavements. Currently, there are no spaces for the free flow of water from rainfalls and streams in the city.

As you can see from the image above, this was as a result of the last flooding that happened in my city which took many lives and properties. This particular flood incident happened like magic, as it came unaware and unannounced.

On that fateful night, I was just lying on my bed and watching a movie, as it rained outside. After about 3 hours of steady rainfall, the whole city was flooded. I stepped out of my bed only to discover that I was standing in a pool of water in my room, hehe.

My city isn't getting the level of attention it deserves, especially in the area of flood management and control. At least we should have some preventive measures set aside to counter this flooding that comes every year.

Both the urban and the rural houses are not safe from this disaster that happens every year. Sometimes because of the urgency of a flood incident, the damages that follow are usually life threatening.

Like the incident of last year when the flood came too suddenly and everyone was seeking ways to evacuate their apartment with their valuables. But a certain man decided to stay back in his apartment because he had no plan on where to go next with all his valuables. The man barely survived 2 more days, as the flood drowned him and his valuables.

This goes to show that what our city needs the most are systems and parameters that could detect and predict incoming floods and the possible ways to reduce the impact of such floods. I think city planners could consider Artificial Intelligence mechanisms to forewarn citizens of the weight and length of the next flood.

I believe this would help citizens to prepare early on the actions to take before and during every flood disaster. The urban planning committee of my city should equally consider building more drainage and ponds for easier flow and direction of water on the land.

Conclusively, I would say the world is revolutionizing and we are seeing the positive impacts of technology. It wouldn't be a bad idea to start making use of some of these technological innovations for better purposes like flood detection and warning alerts, instead of just waiting for obvious signs of flood disasters which have taken many lives already.

My entry for day 8 of the InLeo monthly prompt, organized by the InLeo team. You can check out the link here for participation.

All images were taken with my phone.

I appreciate your time around here❤️:-)