WEBVTT - Loss Is on the Calendar in Nigeria 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:14.680 Welcome back to Drilled. I'm Amy Westervelt. One thing we 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.279 want to be mindful of as we make our way 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:21.200 through this season about protest and the criminalization of it 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.160 and all of the conversations swirling around both of those things, 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.320 is that one of the reasons that so many people 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:33.000 and companies and think tanks and other organizations have worked 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:38.400 really hard to generate so much conversation about protest tactics 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.440 and who's radical and who isn't is to distract from 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:47.040 what's actually going on when it comes to climate change. Today, 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:51.320 we're bringing you an episode from our sister podcast, Inherited, 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.600 that digs into what is actually happening on the ground 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.240 in a place that's being deeply impacted by climate change 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:02.520 and also happens to be the largest oil producer on 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:07.760 the continent of Africa, Nigeria. This episode is called Loss 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:11.760 Is on the Calendar, and in it, storyteller mo Isu 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:15.840 traces the repetitive cycle of loss and rebuilding in the 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:20.040 rural Niger Delta region of Nigeria as the country weather's 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.679 extreme seasonal flooding. After meeting a flood survivor in his 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:29.280 hometown of Lagos, mo travels twelve hours to Lokoja, the 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:34.000 town where Nigeria's largest rivers converge, to explore how directly 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:38.920 impacted flood survivors endure the region's relentless cycle of damage 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.560 and repair. We'll have an episode coming in the next 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.480 few months about what climate protest looks like in Nigeria 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.160 and the history of climate protest there over the past 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:54.160 few decades. Especially as we head into an international climate 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:58.600 summit where conversations are very much swirling around whether fossil 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:03.080 fuel development is the answer to all of Africa's problems 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.680 or not. It's important to remember that yes, energy poverty 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:12.160 is a problem, and also that the continent of Africa 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.480 is likely to experience some of the worst impacts of 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:19.400 climate change, and that poor people there will be impacted hardest. 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.480 A solution that ignores either of those things is no 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:29.279 solution will that enjoy this story from mo U in Nigeria. 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:42.400 In Nigeria, there are two seasons, dry and wet, but 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.800 due to the effects of anthropogenic climate change, many people 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.760 of the Niger Delta region spend their summers displaced the 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.960 rivers that provide for them throughout the year flooding at 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:58.360 alarming rates Hafiday and welcome to Inherited. We share the 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.000 work of young audio storytellers hoping to uplift a new 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.720 generation of climate advocacy. I'm your season host Shalen Martos 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.840 and this is Season three, Episode three. Loss is on 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:16.840 the calendar. Flooding in the Middle Belt in south of 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.440 Nigeria has become the norm. The banks of the rivers 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.880 Niger and Benway overrun each year, destroying homes and taking 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.120 the lives of people whose livelihoods depend on their access 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:33.639 to water. Mo Esu remembers the first major floods in 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:37.400 twenty twelve and sees how the climate crisis directly affects 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:41.480 the people along the rivers in Nigeria today. He shares 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.640 the voices of people whose communities struggle to adapt to 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:49.760 the destruction of each rainy season. Here's mo Esu with 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:51.520 loss Is on the calendar. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.160 Here are two reasons why June is not like any 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.760 of that month. One, it marks the halfway point of 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:06.560 the year. Two, perhaps more significantly, because of the rain. 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:12.320 In the tropical climate of Nigeria, where there are two seasons, 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.120 the dry and the wet, June kicks off the height 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.640 of the wet season. If you get caught out in 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.440 the rain without an umbrella in the middle of June, 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.440 you cannot blame the weather forecast, only yourself. 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:29.880 Personally. I like the rain. 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:34.160 I like watching the drop spatter against my windows. I 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.520 like the cold raize it brings, replacing the humidity. I 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.400 like the certainty of it. Usually we know when the 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.799 rains are coming and we know how to prepare for them. 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:46.719 Usually. 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.600 In twenty twelve, it felt like no one was prepared 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.600 for the rainy season that was fifteen years old at 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.880 the time. Living with my family in the art of Legos, 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.320 I remember this one week in July when the rains 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.040 came and did not stop. It rained on Monday, and 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.520 on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, and was still raining when 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.880 the next Monday came around. All the while I watched 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.520 from the safety of my house on the third floor 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.080 of a three story block of flats. I watched the 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:28.000 pounding rain, the bloodstream winds, and the cushion stream of 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:32.159 water flowed down the streets. I was oblivious to the 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.640 change that this particular raining season was going to bring. 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.159 It is a critical situation for a number east and west. 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.120 The floods of taking over the entire human habitations and 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.760 the people are left helpless as their homes and farmlands 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:49.000 are completely washed away. 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.760 In twenty twelve, Nigeria saw its worst flooding in forty years. 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:56.760 The fifteen year old version of me that watched the 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:00.520 rain from his window learned from the news what others 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.280 lived through. The rain this year was more than they 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.920 had baggained form. By the time June had come and gone, 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.200 disaster struck. Still, there was worse yet. 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.279 To come, and as floods continue as the ravaged parts 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.480 of the country, even areas earlier believe to be safer 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:19.560 being overrun. 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.680 In Delta State, forty three communities in. 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:23.839 The Socer South. 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.400 Communities in the Middle Belt and South of Nigeria were 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:33.320 the worst hit. The rivers of around their banks and 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.719 poor Dunnett gave one off from the downpour, nowhere to go, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.320 and so the water found home in the places where 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:45.760 people live. All houses disappeared, leaving only the top of 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:46.320 their rules. 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.120 The situation is not better. It could get stayed. 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:53.279 Yet people aren't able to leave their homes and those 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.240 who had gone outside the state before the wicked floods 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:57.160 are now stranded. 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:05.040 The floods ravaged communities in venue Niger, Fugi, Edu and 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.880 Kano States, many lucky enough to be alive, and our 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:10.920 refugees in their own country. 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:18.120 The flooding has also hit Adamawa and Taraba, Kano, Bauchi, 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:24.080 Jagawa and Kaduna as well. The official death toll is 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:28.240 around one hundred and forty so far, but AID agencies 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.280 fear that will rise as disease takes hold. 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.160 By the end of the year, three hundred and sixty 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:38.360 three people had died. Seven million people in the the 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:43.120 two of Nigeria stats six states had been affected. Two 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:47.440 point one million of them were displaced from their homes. 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.480 As our learned about flooding news, that's really not something 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.720 that we never as zoo will be something that another 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.040 flood would be something that would happen to me personally. 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:02.600 In twenty twelve, Victor Annual was eighteen. His family moved 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:06.640 to Locoja two years earlier. Lokoja is a river, rhine 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:10.600 and fishing community, the capital of Good Distate and the 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:15.880 town where then Injurias, two largest rivers converge. When the 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:20.920 flooding started, Victor's father raised the first alarm. Victor was 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.840 at the time in university in a different part of 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:24.920 the States. 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:26.520 When the rains came. 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:29.240 It's father called him, but he met the call with 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:30.880 more skepticism that concern. 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:36.679 I really didn't think that's serious. My father had left 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.720 y dramatic. So when is that floor that was like this, 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:44.319 that's coming again? So then I went and travel said 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.120 I should come home immediately. 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.800 And so Victor did just that. He left his friends 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.120 in school and got on a bus to local jar 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.760 where he expected to find his father. Overreacting to a 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:05.400 little extra water on the bus ride. It's slowly dawned 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.960 on the Victor that his father might not be exaggerating. 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.520 The road that led home run parallel to the River Ninja. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:18.160 What was usually a calm, a quiet presence, was suddenly not. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:21.760 The water had reason to ice. They did not imagine 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:26.160 it could reach where trees could be seen before. Now 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.760 there was only the wisper of them. Hounds were half 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:35.160 submerged underwater. Roads disappeared. The people on the bus with 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:37.800 him started to cry. 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:39.959 They had never seen the river like this before. 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.920 The source of their livelihold was coming for their lives. 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.960 When Victor got them, he joined his father in preparation 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.520 for the worst. The flood was growing closer. 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:57.720 Camus in the street next to mine like this used 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.280 to be padd All of a sudden, the mode of 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:05.760 trussortation changed from two kings. 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.600 The two of them, father and son did this sort 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.160 of recognission. They sit in the neighboring streets to see 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.480 how much of a danger there was. In Victor's mind, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.520 it did not seem like much. Yes, there was a flood. 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.560 The river had breached his banks and was flowing deep 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:28.160 into the streets closest to it. But Victor's family did 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.240 not live on one of those streets. From their house, 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.800 they could not see the water, and into his eyes 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:40.880 the water was still coming slowly in rapos, gaining ground 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:44.880 ever so slightly. The flood was still out of sight 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.320 when the twelve of them went to bed that night and. 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.559 The next morning, just fift away from my house. 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.559 I mean, like when you woke up this morning and you. 0:10:56.200 --> 0:11:01.160 You know, like my father had gone to call it frock, just. 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:05.240 Packing immediately everything by the time were partly by the 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:09.439 time we're packing fine, moving to find this where this 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.600 is stepping into the water, like. 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:15.280 Until the water by town when we're going to the 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:17.280 last of the house. 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:19.559 When when you guys stepped back in that day, did 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:21.280 you know that you never did you go back to us? 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.240 Whatever? Did you guys realied that you're packing away from you? 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.040 We thought this will come back. 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.200 It was two weeks before Victor and his father would 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:36.360 return to their home in their boats to find only 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.440 the roof. Escorted with family for a few days, and 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.600 soon moved to a different house in a different part 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:50.240 of town, leaving all their neighbors without ever saying goodbye. 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:54.440 Wheveryone was trying to move actually, so it was just like, 0:11:55.800 --> 0:12:00.600 we're too traumatized to have any sort of emotional goodbyes. 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.720 You understanding you're moving from your house, and look across 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:06.440 you see your best friend's family also trying to move. 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:08.440 She's like at that point or surviver. 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.680 Victor's family was born of the lucky ones. They could 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.840 afford to move and find last and safety. Some other 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:21.679 families did not have the same privilege like Victor. They 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.000 left their homes when the flood came, but instead of 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.319 finding homes, they were moved to displacement camps, where they 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:31.560 stayed for the month. It took the water to receeved, 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.959 and they have been doing this year after year since 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:40.800 their first incident, because you you've spoken about it then, 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:43.800 just like now, they like a part of. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:50.440 Life that the yeah, just ant happen every day. 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.720 In twenty twelve, oblivious to fifteen year old More watching 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.760 from his window, oblivious to Victor and his family to 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:04.679 the old country, something was changing in Nigeria, where the 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:08.960 rain comes in May and lives in October. Flooding a 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:13.400 certain part of the country became a yearly occurrence. When 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:19.160 it came, it took things, people's homes, livelihoods and security. 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:24.680 Sometimes it took the people to what was meant to 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.640 be one of disasters became a part of life. And 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.640 in a place like this, where the people depend on 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.840 the river, they don't have the privilege of living. The 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:42.679 only option is to adapt. So my question now is this, 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:48.040 what does it mean to adapt to loss? To answer 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.040 this question, I took a trip to Local Jab, where 0:13:51.120 --> 0:14:03.480 Victor and his family once lived. It's May twenty twenty 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:08.199 three and the rainy season has slowly begun to announce itself. 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:11.680 It rained the money and I arrived in Local Jab. 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.319 According to the people I spoke, so it's been raining 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:19.080 for the past three days. The rain is late this year, 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.560 but over the next couple of months it will get heavier. 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:29.440 Soon enough, the floods will written. The people who live 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:33.240 in here know this. Pet me your net first. 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:35.120 My name is Ahmed Omad. 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:37.240 I am an indigen of this. 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.080 Community and the YouTube that this community called the book 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.880 the community in Ancord on the. 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:50.880 Local local governmental distance the short FLORDILM. It's a yearly chorus. Yelly, 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:52.280 it's a comic. 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.760 Sit What have you promoted? 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.560 That's the voice of Ahmed Omar, a community leader in 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:04.240 local j He's asking the question on everybody's band, can 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:09.640 we prevent this? Within this question lies others like why 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:10.680 is this happening now? 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:12.280 And why has the. 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:16.680 Flooding become such a persistent problem. The short answer is 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.880 that we are seeing I have volumes of rainfall across 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:24.160 the board in Angeria. The general consensus is that climate 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:28.480 change is the course of this increased rainfall. This increase 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.840 is most notable in the Knot, where rainfall was up 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.560 by more than one hundred and fifty percent last year. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.880 Increased rainfall is bad enough by itself. Certain urban areas 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.720 like Legos, the most popular city in Anigeria, have the 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:48.760 only other gredients necessary for a flooding disaster, poor drainage 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:50.240 and waste management systems. 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:54.240 Legos are Land, densely populated, is one of such areas 0:15:54.600 --> 0:16:00.720 bearing the branch of the rainfall, with streets around the Dumago, Jiankara, Ujogua, 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:03.680 among others, retaining the water for months. 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.440 Then there are the communities in the south where the 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:12.120 River Ninja empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Yeah, I have 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.000 rain for midst rise and sea levels along the coast. 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:20.560 The resulting flood is disastrous, putting entire communities at risk 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:25.720 of extinction. Finally, we have the East, North and central 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.160 part of Nigeria. The longest rivers in the country are 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:33.200 situated Yere. The River Nanja flows in from the northwest 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.400 and the river Anyway from the northeast. 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.680 The country experiences seasonal flooding along these two main rivers 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:43.920 every year, but on a far smaller scale. 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:49.280 It's a different story this time. Both rivers Midia in 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:51.080 Lokoja consisted. 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:54.040 Of the river. 0:16:56.360 --> 0:17:02.840 That's on half of the fence. I go to our 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.480 house that were most collapse. 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.959 During my visits to local job I walked through at 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.440 Anklo where it is not immediately obvious that most of 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:18.040 these buildings were completely underwater less than a year ago. 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.320 They are a few telt his signs that gave it away. 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:26.680 The robot remains of collapsed houses is one. Water marks 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:28.359 on the houses that survived is another. 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:32.920 This this is your house, your brother. 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.840 I met up with Abbas, a farmer and fisherman who 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.919 has lived here in a bancolo for as long as 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.040 you can remember. Because his livelihood is so attached to 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.080 the river, he has beauty. The house about two hundred 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.240 meters away from it. We are looking over the river 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.639 when I sit down with him under his shed to 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.200 talk about his experience over the past ten years and 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.200 now it has changed his relationship with the place it 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:06.119 calls home. We're speaking Pidgeon English and Thenderian career O 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:07.000 version of English. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.600 Don't talk coming again, really now, don't get the rest 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:11.160 of mine now. 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:13.359 Mine even this one. 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.760 Not even talking about this morning. They were wolves dying. 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:19.320 Don't talk this God. 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:21.680 Know what you got. 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:24.520 Their person now? 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:26.159 I said this one. 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:28.920 We're not even talk to you this morning like this. 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.840 That God from where it sits the stones show away 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.240 from the river, shows me the part of the water 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:42.959 when it starts to overflow its bank. It starts by 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.320 mapping out the area closest to the river. He points 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.320 at the barring place of land where it says the 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.960 church used to stand. All that's left now is the 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.480 old tim start for that place. 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.880 Before even that the atte this meant so the money 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:00.760 pass they stand and then that's. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:06.639 There are many stories like this of ghost houses built 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:12.040 before the flooding problem. Before where we've been sitting for 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:16.000 our interview shows me the outline of what used to 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:20.239 be a three bedroom house. It's unrecognizable to me as 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:24.600 such until it points out on the ground what used 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:25.840 to be the foundation blocks. 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:29.919 Now you mightn't be diagnourished to. 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:41.520 Almost Then we crossed into the places where houses still stand, 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:47.240 including his own, although a few rooms are under construction 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:49.720 following their collapse last year. 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:56.479 Guides made through another one hundred meters of affected houses. 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:01.280 In reality, every single house and this area was affected 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:07.280 by last year's flood, including Latifers Latifer to Mosa, whose 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.440 house is at least five hundred meters away from the river. 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.960 According to Latifer, last year's flooding is the worst he 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.480 has ever experienced, worse than the flooding of twenty twelve. 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.200 When the twenty twelve flood came, l if I left 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.879 at home out of fear, but the water did not 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:29.240 actually enter the house. Last year, the flood not only 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.600 displaced their family but kept them away for three weeks. 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.800 And now my house, so impersoned me the water person 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:41.359 on broad week and no house and they look, they 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.719 look my house and not viewish. I go go se 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:48.560 down for where I go, I go find another house. 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:53.720 Now let one rule. I pushed myself and they pushed 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.840 my load. Today, all my my husband and my people. 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:57.679 They go fine. 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:02.000 When the flood comes, it doesn't only drive families out 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:06.680 of their homes, it also divides them. In Latin first case, 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.680 all eleven members of our family found little places to 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:16.359 squat all around the town. Meanwhile, Abubacle's wife and children 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.919 were out in their primary school that costs placed as 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:24.200 a displacement camp during during the season, while a bubaqu 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:28.119 resort at temporary home elsewhere. No one really talks about 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:37.400 this part of flooding, how it breaks up families. Every year, 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:42.200 come October, the news reports statistics the number of people 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:46.479 are affected, acres of land destroyed, and millions of dollars 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:50.440 in property lost. And behind these statistics are the lives 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:54.560 of people like Latifa Musa, people who are unable to 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:57.639 get a full night's rest out of fear that the 0:21:57.720 --> 0:21:59.320 water will come for them while they sleep. 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:02.400 If you don't, they got nobody. If you sleep, go back, 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:05.600 you sleep smart, we go away. You gonna look at 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:09.040 maybe this year the month so that nobody. 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:10.600 If you wear your sleep go back. 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:14.960 People like go back, who are in a perpetual state 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:17.560 of the building with similar beauty. 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:18.720 Of who don't have any. 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:26.000 People like the many by to encountered in the displacement 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:30.560 camp last year when you visited people for whom losing 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:32.640 their home has become a yearly experience. 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:38.639 So now they have so many interesting they have clicks. 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:39.760 They have clicks. 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.840 Yes in the town like it's like and this clicks, 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:46.720 houseful food together, when they shave the look out for 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.760 their own interests. And then when you talk to them 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:52.560 you realize that these people meet this camp. 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:53.320 Like four years ago back. 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:59.119 So these people are now for many new communities in 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:03.280 their temporary homes, bonded by their shared experience of loss. 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:07.200 This is what it means when displacement becomes part of 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:11.399 the calendar. It changes your life, not just once, but 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:21.800 over and over again. It's been ten years since Nigeria 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:26.080 started facing regular flooding. Places like Cookies still don't have 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:29.920 any real infrastructure in place to mitigate the flooding or 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:34.199 to cater for the affected people in the community I visited. 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.360 Every year, a few classrooms of a school are converted 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:42.920 into alls to house they displaced. Hundreds of people, mostly 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:47.480 women and children, pack themselves into these classrooms and they wait. 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:49.720 They are waiting for help. 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:53.639 When they help comes from the government, who comes in 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:57.120 the form of donated food, food that these people would 0:23:57.119 --> 0:24:00.520 then have to fight over a Barbacrid does and stay 0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:03.600 in the camp with his family because he can't stand 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:04.440 that kind of shame. 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:08.159 Two up of rice? What do you Why would you 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:11.159 account what he wants? We won't expect they eat too 0:24:11.240 --> 0:24:13.960 four to carry the fight on top of me. 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:16.359 You can't stand the idea of not being able to 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:19.560 provide for his family and being reduced to fighting for 0:24:19.640 --> 0:24:24.200 some cops of rice. This is not the oppy ones, 0:24:25.000 --> 0:24:28.320 and if I've been honest, this is not the oppen needs. 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:32.680 I met Omar, a community leader in local jam told 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:35.119 me of an angel that just a couple of months 0:24:35.160 --> 0:24:39.000 before we spoke, went around donating building materials to people 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:39.800 in this community. 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:45.400 Yes, I they can to work, Saint Clement, they would 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:48.560 want that you were happy for They give us zinc. 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:52.560 Telepond of zinc, give us fifteen part of cement. 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:57.399 They gave us over fifty blog of block. 0:24:58.359 --> 0:24:59.600 You give up the. 0:25:01.480 --> 0:25:08.320 That's what probably do to them. You just do your estimate. 0:25:09.880 --> 0:25:12.360 Was one of the beneficiaries of this act of kindness. 0:25:13.160 --> 0:25:15.879 When I met him, he had already used some of 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:17.359 these materials in good in. 0:25:17.400 --> 0:25:23.000 His own givement. Give blog band good bye role your 0:25:23.080 --> 0:25:24.399 bed the guy revery. 0:25:25.480 --> 0:25:30.560 So I thought, maybe this is the up needs. Then 0:25:31.040 --> 0:25:34.480 he confessed to me that if given the chance, he 0:25:34.560 --> 0:25:39.119 would move. After living here for so long, after starting 0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:42.640 a family year, was ready to say goodbye to his own. 0:25:43.800 --> 0:25:46.680 He was ready to live somewhere he could have peace 0:25:46.720 --> 0:25:52.120 of mind. So maybe this is it. Maybe they help 0:25:52.200 --> 0:25:57.720 these people need is with relocating. I brought his hypothesis 0:25:57.880 --> 0:26:02.160 up with Ahmed and he reacted with this story. Back 0:26:02.240 --> 0:26:05.800 in twenty twelve, when the floods first came, the Nigeria 0:26:05.880 --> 0:26:09.200 government at the time had moved to relocate the affected people. 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:13.920 An estate was built and houses were allocated to the victims. 0:26:14.840 --> 0:26:17.359 It was one of those rare moments when the government 0:26:17.600 --> 0:26:21.520 seemed to actually take action. But the people that benefited 0:26:21.560 --> 0:26:25.400 from this that we awarded these houses and pieces of land. 0:26:25.400 --> 0:26:29.200 The sued the land majority so their land a majority 0:26:29.280 --> 0:26:31.000