Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, has presented the Global Rapid (Post Disaster) Damage Estimation (GRADE) Assessment report of the 2022 flood situation in Nigeria, with Nigeria losing an estimated $6.68 billion.

Ms Farouq, in her presentation at a media conference on Friday in Abuja, explained that some of the critical findings of the GRADE were that all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory were affected by the 2022 floods in Nigeria, with varying degrees of damages and people affected.

“This analysis estimates that the total direct economic damages, based on currently reported statistics as of 25th November 2022, are in the range of $3.79 billion to $9.12 billion, with the best (median) estimated at $6.68 billion.”

The minister explained that the damages included croplands, infrastructure, and residential and non-residential buildings, among others.

She stated that the report was earlier presented to President Muhammadu Buhari, who approved the needed intervention to assist victims of the 2022 floods across the country.

She said the objective of the GRADE, developed by the World Bank’s Disaster-Resilience Analytics and Solutions (D-RAS) team, was to assess the economic impacts of the flood that ravaged Nigeria between June and November 2022.

“Estimated median damages are thus generally lower than the 2012 assessment (PDNA), but some localised areas may have experienced greater impacts than in 2012 and past seasons such as 2018.”

Also, Ms Farouq stressed that over 4.9 million people were affected by the flood as of November 2022, an increase from the 4.4 recorded in June.

“In terms of destroyed and damaged buildings, there is significant damage in many states, with counting still ongoing.

“Also, significant damage to infrastructure including roads, irrigation and river infrastructure as well as WASH and electricity infrastructure.

“Damage to agricultural crops, associated water infrastructure, fisheries and livestock were also severe,” Ms Farouq said.

In his remarks earlier, the permanent secretary in the ministry, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, said Ms Farouq approved soliciting the World Bank’s support at the peak of the flooding period in 2022 to assist the ministry in coming up with an assessment.

“This is because assessment of the impact of a disaster of such magnitude takes a minimum of six months of hard and diligent work and several layers of activities; we, therefore, opted for a new technology called GRADE.

“This is the first time it is deployed in sub-Saharan Africa, and of course, it is the first time it is deployed in Nigeria. The minister gave us the approval to seek this support, and fortunately, the World Bank came to our assistance.

“They commissioned a series of Search Lights Stations across the globe, particularly in the United States and Australia, that monitored our special horizons for a minimum of 14 days.

“We compared the data of what they saw at that period and the data of the six months of the raging period of the floods, and they came up with these results,” Mr Sani-Gwarzo said. 

(NAN)