Flooding: How IUFMP created first of its kind Early Warning System to save lives

Ibadan, the Oyo State capital is known for its perennial flooding and constant loss of properties due to water overflowing its bank. Over the years, the Oyo State Government has put in place countless interventions to curb the dangerous trend of devastating floods. One of such is interventions is the Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP), established after the August 26, 2011 disastrous flood by the administration of Senator Abiola Ajimobi with assistance from the World Bank, to mitigate the effects of incessant and ravaging flood disasters and reducing flooding to the barest minimum.

IUFMP is primarily given the mandate to chart the Ibadan Master Plan and also ensure that it deploys effective systems to stop flooding via reconstruction and rehabilitation of damaged hydraulic structures, dredging of rivers and sensitisation against poor waste disposal habits. But due to the belief tha curbing flood goes beyond dredging waterways or rehabilitating bridges and culverts, IUFMP has set up an integrated flood early warning and response system with the aid of RMSI, a technology provider that manages risks associated with man-made and natural hazards.

This is part of efforts to proactively combat flood hazards within Ibadan metropolis, via a coordinated system of warning that will alert people in flood prone areas to impending danger six hours before any flooding disaster, to allow them evacuate their families in order to put an end to loss associated with flooding in line with global best practices.

The coordinated system known as the Early Warning System (EWS), is a technologically driven effort which involves monitoring water level remotely using wired sensor network to ensure it that people living in flood prone communities receive appropriate warning within suitable time interval to take effective action to save lives and minimise loss of properties.

In Oyo state, the government has put in place structures that will aid the smooth running of the EWS within Ibadan metropolis by providing money and signing the contract for provision of equipment for EWS and building two control towers; one in the Ministry of Environment and the second one in the State Emergency Management Authority (SEMA)

Speaking on the state government’s efforts to ensure the EWS takes off without hitch, the project coordinator of IUFMP, Engr. John Olasunkanmi Sokeye, stated on Wednesday that while flooding can’t be eliminated, it can be reduced to the minimum and it is possible to ensure that lives are not lost through the EWS which the IUFMP just deployed.

According to him, IUFMP wants to use the digitalised EWS to warn people living in areas susceptible to flooding to evacuate before water overflows its banks to prevent fatalities during unmanageable flooding incidences.

He added that 60 per cent of needed equipment will soon arrive from the UK while others are already being installed emphasising that government already employed six personnels; two IT experts, two meteorologists and two hydrologists to manage the control towers.

“Our partner from India, RSMI has trained civil servants to manage the system and Oyo State already has a pool of 30 personnel to drive the process. In two weeks, five government personnel will be traveling to India to understudy their system to update their knowledge.

“Also, we will have six control stations which will be located at NIHORT, Ministry of Environment Kings College, Airport, CRIN and Idi Ayunre while we will put gauges in 11 major rivers and streams and the sirens that will raise the alarm will be placed in Police stations or in churches and mosques in flood prone communities for proper monitoring,” he said.

Sokeye however appealed to the public not to vandalise the system as it will add no value to them.

Also speaking, Murali Krishna, a consultant with RSMI and community assessment expert on the EWS project stated that the system is one of the best technology to curb devastating effects of flooding, adding that it is the first in Nigeria.

He added that understanding the process will save lives and the process has no problems to use as it is modern and simple in procedure.

“It is modern easy to understand and there’s no problem in its use because it’s simple. We have started training officers since last year and we will be engaging in community awareness with IUFMP,” Murali added.

Early warning is different from flood forecasting and in early warning, alerts are generated  based on outputs of forecasting models on ground observations and the contingency plan put in place  by the relevant bodies and as part of the warning, the system provides a prediction of the scale, timing, location and likely damages of the impending flood

Ultimately, the EWS goes beyond building bridges, culverts, drain lines, and access roads towards clearing water channels and curbing flooding, it uses data and technology to monitor trends and water level to furnish our people with timely alerts on  impending flood disasters to enable them take proactive steps for the preservation of lives and properties.

It supersedes the traditional alarm system because it doesn’t depend on experience or knowledge of terrain but is anchored on real figures and constant monitoring of water levels in flood prone areas to get informed decision of the likelihood of flood before it happens.

It ultimately protects the people from vulnerability to flooding, through adequate knowledge building and information flow on impending flooding and looming dangers ahead of time to save lives that would have been lost to flooding if such information were unavailable.

The EWS was designed to go beyond mere palliatives and reactionary measures to a comprehensive and multi-faceted solution to the menace of flooding in order to checkmate the attendant massive loss of lives and properties that had been witnessed at different times in the flooding history of Ibadan based on the foundation that the solutions built into the IUFMP are both structural and non-structural.

And as IUFMP perfects the EWS to warn people in vulnerable flood-prone communities to run from disaster, there are expectations that while flood cannot be completely eradicated, Ibadan will not lose lives to flooding again.