Nigeria First in The World To Implement HYDROSOS, Other Countries To Emulate.. 

Workshop timely, intended to proffer solutions to global challenges associated with Hydro-meteorological hazards- Sirika

Maryam Aminu

Every year natural disasters like floods take away many homes, causes food insecurity, health risks and conflicts in many part of the continent

Delivering his keynote address,the Minister of Aviation,Senator Hadi Abubakar Sirika, represented by the Rector of the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, Capt. Abdulsalam Mohammed commended Nigeria Meteorological Agency (Nimet), who in collaboration with the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) and the support of the United Kingdom Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) for organizing a workshop on Hydro-Meteorological Status and Outlook System (HYDROSOS) in Nigeria

Sirika said the workshop was timely as it intended to address and proffer solutions to global challenges associated with Hydro-meteorological hazards, especially as it related to Africa, particularly Nigeria.

“Over the years, the management and distribution of water resources as well as mitigation of water-related hazards and disasters have been challenging for government at all levels, globally. Sometimes, this may be attributed to deficiency of hydrometeorological information during planning in times past exacerbated by the impacts of changing climate,”he said.

He, however, said that as a result these shortfalls, water managers and stakeholders could not properly access the availability of water resources on different spatio-temporal scales, thus the need to have hydrological information and products that are impact-based,demands driven and user specific.

The Minister added that the services provided by Nimet are essential in ensuring weather and climate related hazards do not threaten the sustainable development of Nigeria but become opportunities to further expand socioeconomic benefits through resilience, mitigation, and adaptation actions.

One of the key products that has been developed by NiMet is the Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP), a scientific document that relies in long term database of meteorological data,soil information, crop information and skills-sets of NiMet team of experts.

The Director General, NiMet, Professor Mansur Bako  Matazu, said “it is no longer news to anyone here that water-related hazards and threats have become a global challenge in the face of a changing climate coupled with population growth and increasing socioeconomic activities.

“Every year, water-related hazard affects millions of  people globally and causes damage to properties worth billions of dollars. It is expected that water-associated risks are going to intensify in the coming years as the full weight of climate change begins to bear on our earth.”

“From the information we are getting, we are going to see more floods. And now the rain is concentrating on the North-Central and the Southern states. So there will be a combination of short-duration, high-intensity rain, with riverine flooding, Matazu disclosed

“We are going to see more of these floods in the north-central states as we have seen in Kogi and also southeastern and southwestern states as we are beginning to see in Anambra and some of the parts of South-West.”

In September, 2022 NiMet raised alarm that based on the rainfall distribution and  rainfall amounts recorded in the country during the month of August, “there is possibility of flooding in some states that have experienced high amount of rainfall in July and August this year.”

Director General of Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, Engr. Clement Nze, said the floods would be most felt in Niger Delta regions.

He said presently the Lagdo Dam was released alongside other dams, noting that we would be experiencing riverine flooding which indicated more flooding especially in the North-Central and the southern states.

Nze said the impact of the flood for the year 2022 surpasses what was experienced in 2012.

The Deputy Director and Chief Scientist, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Alan Jenkins,commended NiMet for being first agency in the world to apply the HydroSOS.

Jenkins noted that Nigeria has a lot of readily available tools to develop the HYDROSOS

“The system is designed to answer related questions as to the current state of water resources: how much flow do you have in the river?, how much groundwater do you have available ie the soil moisture?
Where do we have problem? Is it wet season such as now or during the dry situation? And where is it likely to get worst over the next 1-3 month?”, he explained.