Climate-Driven Temporary Displacement of Women and Children in Anambra State, Nigeria: The Causes and Consequences

Abstract

With increasing periods of extreme wet seasons, low lying geographic position, with socioeconomic, and political factors; some communities in Anambra State, Nigeria experience heightened floods annually resulting in loss of shelter, displacement of people with breakdown of livelihoods, particularly in rural communities worsening their risks and vulnerabilities. In 2012, a major flood event in the state temporarily displaced about 2 million people. In this chapter, we used a community-based adaptation approach to investigate the causes and consequences of climate-related temporary displacement on community members in Ogbaru LGA, Anambra State following flood events. We used global positioning system to obtain the community’s ground control points and gathered our data via field observation, transects walks, focus group discussions, photography, and in-depth interviews. Our findings reveal a heightened magnitude of flood related disasters with decreased socio-economic activities, affecting their health and well-being. Also, the community members have a practice of returning to their land, after flood events, as a local mitigating risk management strategy. For multilevel humanitarian responses at the temporary shelter camps, it becomes imperative to meaningfully engage the community members on the challenging risks and vulnerabilities they experience following climate-driven temporary displacement to inform adaptation and resilience research, policy change and advocacy.