Flood Risk and Farming Households’ Decision-Making to Flood Disasters in Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract

In West Africa, the impacts of flooding are becoming more severe with climate warming. Flood-prone communities in Kogi State in north-central Nigeria are affected by annual flooding and some extreme flood events. The negative impacts remain a major obstacle to development, environmental sustainability, and human security, exacerbating poverty in the region. Within these contexts, the research critically assesses the vulnerability of households to flooding. Also, it explores households’ perception of flood risk, examines the realities and dynamics of adaptation measures employed by households to face floods, and sought to understand the factors and processes that motivate them in deciding to leave or live in flood-prone areas. The study was conducted purposively in 8 local government areas of the State with cases of flood disaster, to evaluate the flood vulnerability of the population using the Improvement of Vulnerability Assessment in Europe (MOVE) framework. Following this framework, extensive literature review was conducted to develop relevant proxy indicators. Structured questionnaires were used for household surveys to collect data from 400 households in twenty selected communities through purposive sampling methods. These communities were selected purposely because they were reported to be submerged in flood water during the year 2019 disastrous flood events in Kogi State which caused significant damage. The vulnerability factors, exposure, susceptibility, and lack of resilience as well as the overall vulnerability were calculated and compared using the QGIS tool. The study also uses in-depth interviews, participant observation, and 4 focus group discussions with the respondents. Findings show that firstly, the overall vulnerability and the factor of the vulnerability of the studied locations were very high. Susceptibility and exposure factors were found to greatly influence vulnerability, and communities had a high lack of resilience in the face of flood hazards. Thirdly, the results show that farming households are not willing to abandon their land and relocate to the upland because floods were indicated as part of their lives and livelihood strategies. These decisions were largely influenced by the cultural and economic importance of households derived from flood-prone areas. The findings of this study recommend the need to generate flood disaster awareness among the vulnerable populations exposed to flooding through community programs, support them to implement flood preparation and mitigation measures, as well as bridge the gap between local administration and the public by adopting a humanistic approach, which will enable collaborative efforts for effective flood risk reduction/management and increase flood resilience. When and where the resettlement scheme proves very difficult due to strong cultural attachment, flood prevention mechanisms via engineering construction such as dykes, embankments, and ditches should be adopted