The Flood is Partly Your Fault

Photo by Farah Nabil on Unsplash

 By Ramatu Ada Ochekliye

Abuja is flooding again. And, as expected, everybody has something to say about who is responsible.

A lot of the conversation has centred on the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. And honestly, I understand why.

There are serious questions being asked about the development of Abuja, the allocation and conversion of green spaces, parks, floodplains and waterways, and whether the city is being developed in ways that are compromising the systems that were designed to manage water.

Senator Ireti Kingibe, GST, and even everyday citizens have raised concerns about developments on green areas, flood channels, and floodplains. The recent flooding has also prompted the FCT Administration to begin removing structures found to be obstructing waterways.

So yes, we need to ask questions.

Who approved these developments? Who allowed buildings to go up where water is supposed to pass? Who is enforcing the Abuja Master Plan? Who is protecting the green spaces and natural drainage systems that are supposed to protect the rest of us?

Those are legitimate questions.

But I think we need to have another conversation. Because Wike is not the only reason Abuja is flooding.

And this is where I think we need to be honest with ourselves.

Look at our gutters. Look at our drains. Look at what we put into them. We throw bottles into gutters. Plastic bags. Food wrappers. Takeaway packs. Old clothes. All kinds of things. And then when the rain comes, and the water has nowhere to go, we are surprised.

We also have drains filled with sand.

And I am not talking about some faraway part of Abuja. Even right here in my neighborhood. There are little drainage outlets around us that are filled with sand that was washed into them during previous rainfall. And nobody cleared them.

So the next rainfall comes. The drain is already partially blocked. Then more rain comes. More sand comes. More water comes. And eventually, the water has nowhere to go.

This is not complicated. It is basic maintenance.

And that is why I think we need to start talking about being proactive. Because we have become very reactive as a people.

We wait for the flood. Then we start asking questions. 

We wait for the cholera outbreak. Then we start talking about sanitation.

We wait for the road to collapse. Then we start talking about infrastructure.

We wait for somebody to die. Then we start asking who should have done something.

Why?

Why do we always have to wait for disaster before we act?

Flood management does not begin when the rain starts falling. It begins before the rain. It begins with proper urban planning. It begins with protecting waterways. It begins with maintaining drainage systems. It begins with clearing sand and debris from drains. It begins with proper waste disposal.

And yes, it begins with the government doing its job.

But it also begins with us. Because we cannot demand that the government protect our environment while we are actively destroying it. We cannot complain that the gutters are blocked when we are the ones stuffing waste into them. We cannot complain that water has nowhere to go when we are contributing to the very obstruction that prevents it from moving.

And I know somebody will say, “But that is the government's job.”

Yes. Some of it is.

Government has a responsibility to provide proper drainage infrastructure, enforce planning regulations, protect waterways, manage waste properly, and ensure that the systems are maintained. And government must be held accountable when it fails.

But accountability cannot only travel in one direction. We have to be accountable too. Because Abuja is not just a collection of buildings and roads. It is an ecosystem. What we do in one part of the city can affect somebody else several kilometres away. The plastic bottle you throw into a gutter does not disappear. The sand that sits in a drain does not magically move itself. The waste you dump indiscriminately because you do not want it in front of your house does not stop existing because you cannot see it anymore.

Eventually, it comes back.

Sometimes as floodwater. Sometimes as contaminated water. Sometimes as disease.

And that is why this conversation is much bigger than flooding. Because flooding is connected to environmental protection. Environmental protection is connected to how we manage waste. And waste management is connected to our health.

That is actually why Shades of Us and I are making a film called Refuse.

Refuse is about the connection between climate action, environmental protection, waste disposal, and health, particularly the risk of diseases like cholera. These things are not separate issues. They are connected.

When we talk about climate action, we cannot only talk about carbon emissions and global conferences. We have to talk about what happens on our streets. We have to talk about what happens in our gutters. We have to talk about what happens when it rains. We have to talk about where our waste goes. And we have to talk about what happens when contaminated water enters the places where people live, eat, play, and work.

So yes, hold Wike accountable. Hold the FCT Administration accountable. Ask questions about land allocations. Ask questions about waterways. Ask questions about planning. Ask questions about drainage. Ask questions about enforcement. Ask every government that has a responsibility to protect Abuja to do its job.

But please, let us also hold ourselves accountable, because we cannot keep behaving as though the environment belongs to somebody else.

It belongs to us. The city belongs to us. The drains belong to us. And the consequences belong to all of us.

We need to do better. We need to stop waiting for disaster before we become responsible. We need to clear the drains before the rain. We need to dispose of our waste properly before it becomes somebody else's problem. We need to protect the waterways before the water needs somewhere to go. And we need to understand that environmental protection is not just something governments do.

It is something communities do.

It is something households do.

It is something individuals do.

So yes, the government must do better.

But so must we.

Because when the next rainfall comes, the question should not only be: “Who caused this?” We should also be asking: “What did we do to prevent it?”

And that is the conversation I want Refuse to have.

Because sometimes, the most uncomfortable part of accountability is realising that we are also part of the story.