Preventing floods in Nigeria

In the last decade the number of floods in many West African countries has increased dramatically with very severe economic impacts.

The Multi Scale Flood Monitoring and Assessment Services for West Africa (MiFMASS), is a project implemented by CSSTE Consortium, and sponsored through the African Union Commission and the European Commission collaboration. The project has seven implementing partners spread across five African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso.

The aim of the project is to enhance the efficiency of flood monitoring, assessment and management in West Africa by providing Earth Observation images on real time basis and improving the disaster management capacity by regularly updating the regional flood events database in the countries interested by the project.

Thanks to the project early warning system, people are able to be better prepared ahead of a disaster. So you don’t have a situation of stampede or rush. That has been a key aspect, to get the message earlier, allowing, in particular women, children, and people with disabilities to move to a safe location.

Funmi Shonubi, Coordinator MIFMASS

This action will provide tools, models, databases and systems that will enhance the information and knowledge of the various Disaster Monitoring Organisations across West Africa and subsequently reduce the entity of losses normally associated with floods.

Through trainings, the project will increase the technical expertise of these organizations and their capability to manage the monitoring systems. The identification of potential flood risks will allow to elaborate measures and policies to prevent the damages of future floods in inhabited areas.

Half of the programme trainees are females. And at the community level, women are really enthusiastic about working with us, they are very forthcoming with the information we need. On the technical expertise level, women are so much involved in this project, the input and we got has been amazing.

Funmi Shonubi, Coordinator MIFMASS

These services will provide local communities with means to anticipate and alleviate the impacts of floods.

Implementing organisations

National Water Institute (INE-NWI), University of Ghana (UG), Department of Earth Sciences, Volta Basin Authority (VBA), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Water Research Institute (CSIR-WRI), Institut Supérieur d’Etudes Spatiales et Télécomun