Journal of Environmental Hazards

Flood Impact Assessment on the Environment: A Case Study of Birnin- Kudu, Jigawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Abdullahi Kamal*, Abdullahi Shamsudden, Ladan Muhammad Auwal and Mohammed Umar Aminu

Flood in Birnin-Kudu areas is a terrible catastrophe. The location of large parts of the study area is associated with river ways, one is situated along Masaya Bridge and the other along Kwanar-Huguma and many communities are at risk of flood hazard. This study is aimed at assessing the flood impact on the environment, identifying the factors responsible for flooding occurrence, determining the factors toward prevention, management and control of flooding and understanding the community’s responses on ways to arrest flooding event ; A case study of Birnin Kudu, Jigawa State. A sample size of 600 respondents were drawn for self-administered questionnaire, 425 were fully completed. Data collected were analyzed descriptively using Microsoft Excel (Version 2019). Findings revealed that, some of the factors responsible for flood occurrence were poor drainage systems (70.6%), absence of drainages systems (60.5%), lack of unimproved water system in the neighboring community (51.1%), lack of sufficient water reservoirs (50.4%) and poor farming practices (28.9%). Some of the impacts were those that affect the economy of a given geographical area (95.1%), those that affect farm outputs (93.4%) and those that cause the destruction of human settlement (92.5%), deterioration of fertile land (86.4%) and declining of biodiversity (78.4%). Majority of the respondents showed awareness and interest on factors responsible for prevention, management and control of flooding across the affected areas. However, on ways to arrest flooding across the areas, 49.6% revealed that on maintaining the available drainages there is a need for community leaders and community members involvement. It is recommended that, there is a need for provision of standard infrastructural facilities by the government, repair and construction of these drainages where necessary should be embarked on to further ease the flow of storm water, environmental sanitation program must be made compulsory and appropriate agency should be vested with the power to deal with residents who fail to adhere to the rule of sanitation and public enlightenment programmes should be organized to educate the public on the dangers of flood disaster and its causes as a result of the habit of throwing and dumping refuse in gutters, drainage paths and river channels.