Impact of the 2012 Nigeria Flood on Emergent Cities of Nigeria: The Case of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State

Abstract

This paper investigated the impact of the 2012 Nigeria flood on emergent cities of Nigeria using Yenagoa city as a case study.   Both primary and secondary data were used in this paper. The primary data included the use of questionnaire and personal interview. From our preliminary investigation, the total number of communities in the study area was found to be fifty seven. Simple random sampling techniques were used to select six communities in the local government. The six sampled communities are Ovom, Opolo, Akenfa, Ikibiri, Okolobiri and Ikarama. Ten percent of the household was finally used for the household questionnaire administration. The total number of questionnaire administered for the households was 528 while 465 were retrieved. Findings from this paper shows that 86.2%  of the respondents claimed that school infrastructure was damaged due to flood, 69.5% agreed that health facilities were damaged, 80.6% agreed on disruption in accessing hospital services due to flood, 77.4% agreed that sources of drinking water was affected by flood; and 85.2% perceived that sanitary facilities were affected due to flood. Further evidence from the paper indicates that the causes of vulnerability to flood in Yenagoa LGA are residing on the flooded area (52.9%) and lack of alternative livelihoods (48.8%).   The coping strategies among the residents as revealed from the paper are preparing mosquito net (21.1%), construction of permanent embankment along water front (23.4%) and relocation (49.5%). The paper therefore recommends among others periodic carrying out of flood hazard and risk mapping  to reduce flood damages in the flooded areas of Yenagoa LGA, construction of dams across the major rivers to regulate the volume of water and commensurate assistance to the affected residents by Government.

Key words: Impact, 2012 Nigeria Flood, Emergent Cities, Vulnerability, Disaster