By Victoria Onehi
The Federal Government has said about $6.681 billion dollars was lost during the flood that ravaged the country between June and November 2022.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouq, disclosed this on Friday in Abuja while presenting a Post Disaster Assessment report on the 2022 Flooding in Nigeria.
Farouq in a statement by her Special Assistant on Media Nneka Ikem Anibeze, said the objective of the Global Rapid Damage Estimation (GRADE) Note, developed by the World Bank’s Disaster-Resilience Analytics and Solutions team, was to assess the economic impact of the June-November 2022 floods in the country.
According to the Key findings of the GRADE report, all the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory were affected by the 2022 flood in Nigeria with varying degrees of damages and people affected.
“This analysis estimates that the total direct economic damages, based on currently reported statistics as of November 25th are in the range of US$3.79 billion to US$9.12 billion with the best (median) estimate at US$6.68 billion. This includes damages to residential and non-residential buildings (including building contents), as well as damages to infrastructure, productive sectors and to cropland”.
The Minister explained that the number of persons affected rose above 4.9 million as of November 25th, 2022 with significant damage to infrastructure including roads, irrigation and river infrastructure as well as WASH and electricity infrastructure with around $1.23 billion ($0.959-$1.724 billion) in damage expected.
Umar Farouq called on the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) to utilize the GRADE Assessment to plan the recovery and rehabilitation of victims of the flood as well as the responding MDAs in Federal, States and Local Governments to also use the report to ameliorate the plight of victims of the 2022 flood.
Earlier in his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Dr Nasir
Sani -Gwarzo mni. NPOM. stated that the Ministry and NEMA jointly sought a preliminary and quantitative spatial damage assessment which was considered to be faster than a traditional Post Disaster Needs Assessment and fairly accurate with the technical support from the World Bank Group.
“The GRADE approach was with the collaboration of many stakeholders including NIMET, NARDA, NIHSA, NSCDC and the GRADE assessment was conducted between Nov 14-28, 2022 after the flood water had receded in most parts in the country from June to November 2022.
“The World Bank delivered the Grade Report on time in November 2022 and the Ministry through NEMA has started implementing some of the findings of the report”.
The GRADE report becomes a vital tool to understanding the effects of the flood on people, their coping capacity and who are the most vulnerable groups. It can also be used to identify the most urgent recovery needs and the best methods of the reconstruction of critical sector infrastructure.
