Assessment of awareness and levels of preparedness for humanitarian disasters across some geopolitical zones in Nigeria

Disaster preparedness is critical for households, businesses, and communities. Over the years, Nigerians have had to rely on sheer luck and providence to save themselves from disasters with little or no help from rescue agencies, which on many occasions have been found to lack the capacity and wherewithal to intervene in such difficult moments. This research focused on determining the level of awareness, preparedness, and response of Nigerians to humanitarian disasters. This was a cross-sectional study in which relevant data was collected from household heads who were selected via a multistage sampling technique and the data was analysed by SPSS v23. The mean age of the respondents was 39 years, with an average family size of seven. Flooding, fire incidence, and rioting were the highest recorded disasters known and experienced by participants and the humanitarian disasters experienced in the four states were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The participants’ awareness of humanitarian disasters emerged from diverse sources, with the highest percentage being personal experience (25.5%), television (21.3%) radio jingles (17.9%), and information obtained through telephone calls (0.2%) was the least common. Flooding was the most significant disaster encountered among all participants. Blocked drainages as a cause of floods were reported among 24.9% of the respondents, whereas 21.4%, 18.6%, and 8.9% attributed causes of floods to heavy rainfall, the opening of dams, and a lack of drainage, respectively. Effects of flooding on participants ranged from loss of life and property to an adverse impact on income. Additionally, regarding how participants would prevent flooding, 33.5% of the responses indicated clearing drainages, 19.3% stated public enlightenment, 13.5% suggested non-dumping of refuse in drainages, and 6.8% affirmed that floods could be prevented if structures are not built on drainage channels. Finally, concerning what had to be done in the case of flooding, 33.2% suggested climbing to larger areas, and shouting for help, 25.7% recommended calling emergency numbers, 9.4% proposed swimming across the flood, and 7.8% responded by staying in the flood and holding tightly to objects. To systematically reduce the increased impact of humanitarian disasters, especially flooding, there is a need for safety training, increased orientation programs and continued education in response to humanitarian disasters.