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Jay Doorga, a lecturer at the University of Mascareignes, in Mauritius, uses GIS regularly in his work on renewable energy and climate change. Doorga, who was not involved with Ogunwumi’s study, believes the research is important, particularly “given the underlying social and climate vulnerabilities of these groups of people,” he wrote in an email to Undark.
Ogunwumi argues that this is precisely the kind of data that government agencies should take into account when locating IDP camps, in order to reduce guesswork and avoid flooding. But it’s not clear to what extent the government agencies responsible for the camps — the State Emergency Management Agency, or SEMA, and the National Emergency Management Agency, or NEMA, of Nigeria — have taken flood risk into account so far.
“It is a failure on the part of the government,” said Adaku Echendu, who studies environmental sustainability, disaster risk, and climate impacts as a Ph.D. student at Queen’s University in Canada. “These are people who are facing trauma, and then you site a camp in an area prone to flooding,” she said. “There are things that should have been done before you site a camp.”
Ya Bawa Kolo, director-general of the Borno SEMA, told Undark that assessing flood risk is not always possible given the need to set up camps quickly. “You cannot even think on whether it is flood-prone area,” she said. “At that time, we are just trying to respond so that people have shelter.”
Following the 2022 floods, Kolo said that the Borno SEMA is more prepared to provide flood relief and continues educating communities in areas with high flood risk. And, she noted, SEMA is now designing camps to allow water to flow more freely, rather than stagnating.
NEMA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
When heavy rains fall at the camp where Lawan and his family live, Helen Yohanna, the camp manager, jumps into action. “The first thing that we will do immediately after the rain is to go for an assessment to find out how many shelters are inside the water. How many families affected? How many individuals affected?” she said. Often, Yohanna, who works for the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, or IOM, will collaborate with partner organizations to cover gaps that Nigerian government agencies are unable to meet.
Sometimes IDPs need sandbags to reinforce shelters, or machines to pump out excess water. Other times, replacing damaged household supplies becomes a priority. Those interventions take time, though — anywhere from days to months. Some IDPs have to temporarily reside with family members in unaffected shelters inside the camp.
“Ideally, it is supposed to be the role of either the State Emergency Agency or National Emergency Agency,” said Yohana. “But of course, we know the nature of our country, even the ones that are not internally displaced still have some challenges and gaps.”
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原文来源：https://undark.org/2023/05/04/mapping-flood-risk-for-nigerias-internally-displaced-people/
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