Abstract

Flood is a global natural disaster that has hugely cost the world in human and property loss with Nigeria having her own share of the menace at different times, the greatest of which occurred in 2012 when the country lost up to 363 people and 1.4% of her GDP to flood. This study which aims at providing permanent solutions to flooding and its attendant’s effects in the study area was carried out in the six wards of Maiduguri metropolis most vulnerable to flood. Data obtained in respect of socio-economic characteristics indicated most inhabitants of the areas are in low income cadre earning living from farming, petty trading and artisanship with 0nly 17.6% as civil servants. Findings revealed that the area which though according to master plan, was originally designated for farming has been fully built up. About 62% of inhabitants had hitherto experienced flood, yet are still occupying the area for various reasons ranging from cheapness of land and rent, poor finance, family origin and only available space. The study discovered that varying degree of efforts from government agencies, community self-help programmes and individuals are on-going to mitigate the flood hazard but the result of which are unnoticeable due to lack of policy framework, inadequate finance and crude nature of some of the efforts. An integrated approach involving relocation of residents of the High Risk Zone in areas ranging from 10-150 m radius around Rivers Ngada and Alou, flood reduction and living with flood concepts by others in the Middle Risk and Lower Risk Zones through progressive renewal, reclamation, construction of deep drainages and embankments, proper solid waste management and adequate development control strategies, are recommended as physical planning strategies much required to mitigate flood incidence and its attendants effects in Maiduguri.

Keywords:

Application, control, flood, physical planning, strategies,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.