Why Are So Many Countries Reeling Under Water Right Now?
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Sulaiman
- . October 13, 2022
- . Update: November 11, 2022 12:56 am
Floods are worsening in many parts of the world, a peril that will not go unless it is tackled seriously. The countries suffering the most includes Nigeria, Venezuela and Indonesia apart from parts of Australia aswell.
According to findings by the Global Food Database, between 2000 and 2015, around 86 million more people reside in areas classed as flooded, a 24 per cent increase. The conditions of floods have not improved but worsened due to climate change.
A World Bank study in September found 1.81 billion people are directly exposed to 1-in-100-year floods. Eighty-nine per cent of those people reside in low and middle-income countries.
In Venezuela for example, torrential rains brought flooding and landslides last weekend, killing at least 43 people and leaving 56 missing, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said.
Read | How Will Sudan Sail Through Floods, Bad Governance and Inflation?
The town of Las Tejerias, 50 kilometres from capital Caracas, was almost destroyed in the landslide and running water is yet to be restored.
For Sudan as well, it isn’t getting any better. As the country is already facing mass hunger issues, with low availability to food, Sudan has been reeling under huge flooded waters, wiping off rural communities all together, forcing displacement as well. Floods have been ongoing since August and now continue into September.
Their woes have also compounded and have crippled a country that has been reeling under political stalemate for decades together. A battered unfunctional economy is also another thing to worry, apart from them struggling with frequent collapses of security in its western and southern regions.
Nigeria is experiencing its worst flooding in decades, which has been blamed on heavy rain and the release of the Lagdo dam in neighbouring Cameroon. More than 500 people have been killed so far this year by the floods.
According to Nigeria’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs “over 1.4 million persons remain displaced, with 500 persons have been reported dead and 1,546 persons were injured”.
Even the flooding in Chad has been merciless. Since July, food insecurity has worsened. The country is on its third poor harvest and lacks funds to deal with humanitarian crises including Covid-19, an influx of refugees and intercommunal tensions as food prices rise.
Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and Sumatra Island’s northern Aceh province were flooded last week, and thousands remain without shelter.
Much of Pakistan remains under water after the monsoon season brought flooding that killed 1,700 people and injured more than 12,000.
