Examination of international law and flood management

Abstract

Flood disasters have forced millions of people from their homes, destroyed businesses, polluted water resources and increased the risk of diseases. Flood affects and displaces more people than any other disasters, though not leading in terms of claiming lives. It causes more damages to properties. Numerous human and environmental factors threaten to increase the likelihood and magnitude of floods throughout the world. Presently, the law of international watercourses provides the basic norms by which States cooperate over flood-related matters. Emergency Management being a managerial function is charged with creating the framework which communities and organisations can reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. It is the process of preparing for mitigating, responding to and recovering from an emergency like flood that informed this paper. This paper is aimed at evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of legal and institutional framework on flood related disasters in Nigeria in line with the recently adopted floods directive and the model Provisions of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Helsinki Convention. The paper further aims to point out the strength and weakness inherent in the extant law for flood prevention and mitigation. The paper also examines the extent of the involvement of international law flood related issue. This paper finds that disaster risk governance at the national, regional and global levels is of great importance for the effective management of disaster risk governance at the national, regional and global levels is of great importance for the effective management of disaster risk.

Keywords: International Law, Emergency, Management, Flood Management, Efficiency, Legal and Institutional Framework