The Tripartite Angles to Mitigating Flood

Here is my full response to the question on approaches to mitigating flood which was posted by ThisDay newspapers, Nigeria. Excerpts of this  piece was published on page 35 of THISDAY, 18 October 2018. (Picture of the newspaper page herewith)
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… Much as it is pertinent to note that the poor drainage system poorly networked  across the length and breadth of the nation is primary to blame, the anti-environment friendly waste disposal attitude of Nigerians is largely to be pointed at.

Similarly, the poor adherence to the geographical development and regional plans on land use is the third to be discussed.

These three above are critical angles to my mind, that need to be consciously addressed. But how?

Before getting into the HOWs, I opine that the earlier 3 highlighted causes should be grouped into 2 as thus; Causes 1 and 2 being the Citizenry or Individual Influenced Causes and the third, Government Influenced Cause.

1. The poor waste and anti-environment friendly waste disposal attitude of individuals: 

Culture, they say is the way of life of individuals within a given geographical location. In line with the subject of concern, the waste disposal culture in Nigeria is incomparable to what is obtainable in the Western world. So having a turnaround on the waste disposal attitude of Nigerians would be achievable when; the government embarks on campaigns to educate and enlighten Nigerians across all tiers of government on the need to embark on environment friendly waste disposal culture as well as the health hazard risks and pollution exposure. This way everyone would know that him or her would be to blame should there be environmental hazards arising from unfriendly waste disposal practices. One may interject, but everyone should know? My simple response is, with the ineffectiveness of VisionScape, one should have a second thought. The endpoint of the campaign is making widely known, the respective sanctions to individuals that flout the environment hygiene rules and regulations. 

2. Poor drainage  system: The drainage system should not be disjointed but well laid out to connect with and to one another thereby having a smooth pathway to the drainage endpoint. Regular cleaning and clearing of the drainage should be encouraged in every community as the contrary should be frowned at.

3. Poor adherence to the geographical development and regional land use plans: The government over the years have overtime had reasons to demolish buildings due to such structures being allegedly erected against the regional land use plan. The thought behind this is that it only shows that the government lacks regular monitoring at ensuring full adherence to its laid down geographical development and regional plans, It is of utmost importance that the government sets up an effective monitoring team so that such illicit structures are arrested prior to its erection. Demolishing comes at a cost and with effective monitoring, such wastages to individuals and government would be avoided.

From these, irrespective of the number of waste disposal bins spread across an environment, it is the attitude of people at using the bins that is key to avoiding blockage of the drainage and more so, the effectiveness of government is measured by its timeliness at disposing the waste bins without necessarily waiting for it to get filled up.