Murky water first tore down a perimeter fence, then bubbled into the yard before spilling into every room. Within minutes, electronics, kitchen appliances, furniture, documents and academic certificates lay submerged in a Lagos home.
With the water rising rapidly, Daniel Ebiesua evacuated his home in the Shogunle area of Lagos, with his wife, their two-week-old baby, four-year-old son and his mother-in-law to a neighbour's upstairs apartment. There they stayed trapped for four hours, helplessly watching the flood swallow the streets below.
“It was a painfully difficult evening for my family and me,” he says of the evening of 28 June. “I had to relocate them to a hotel, where we now spend 35,000 naira (£19) daily and depend on ordering food.”
A distinct brown water line still marks the walls of his living room and a damp smell hangs in the air as soaked mattresses, broken furniture and ruined electronics lie outside in the drizzling rain. For Ebiesua, the pain isn't just about the material damage the flood caused, but the psychological effects. “Now every dark cloud feels like a warning, every rainfall sparks a pang of fear that it could happen again.”
Climate Anxiety and Ecological Grief
As Nigeria sees more frequent and devastating floods caused by torrential rain combined with clogged drainage channels and rising sea levels, experts say the rebuilding process does not start when the waters recede, especially with mounting anxiety, grief and psychological fatigue.
Mental health professionals call this hidden burden one of the least-recognised effects of the climate emergency. “We're seeing more people experiencing climate anxiety,” says Dr Faith Aboloje, a trauma recovery expert and founder of online counselling platform, Safe Corner by Jevwe. “Unlike typical stress, this fear is linked to repeated environmental disasters, trapping survivors in anticipation and dread. For some, the sound of rain alone triggers panic, reminding them of what they've already lived through.”
She says flood survivors experience “ecological grief”. “Losing homes and identities, leading to prolonged struggles that disrupt sleep, health and relationships, and leave communities emotionally drained long after floods.”
Constant Vigilance Takes a Mental Toll
In Okun Alfa, a low-lying village on the island part of Lagos, 26-year-old driver Joseph Moko lives with recurring floods. “Whenever it rains at night, I find it hard to sleep because I could wake up any moment and find my bed submerged,” he says. “I'm always alert, listening to the rain, ready to gather my things before the water gets into the house. You can never truly rest because you don't know what the next hour will bring.”
Vigilance takes a mental toll, says Moko. “Every time the rain starts falling, the fear comes back. You pay rent hoping you'll have a peaceful place to sleep, but instead you're anxious all night, wondering if the flood will come again. It's mentally exhausting, and it's a very, very bad feeling.”
The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency has warned of another dangerous flooding season this year, putting more than 14,000 communities at high risk and at least 15,000 at moderate risk.
Allostatic Overload and Chronic Stress
Behind the statistics are families who repeatedly rebuild homes, relocate their children, take out loans and start again. Climate advocates such as Jennifer Uchendu of SustyVibes describe another consequence known as “allostatic overload” – prolonged stress. “Having to live with constant environmental threats keeps people in a heightened state, raising risks of depression, anxiety, hypertension, heart disease and weaker immunity.”
Unlike trauma, chronic climate stress develops gradually, often making it difficult to notice when it starts affecting every aspect of daily life.
Loss of Livelihoods: Farmers and Fish Farmers Devastated
In Abule Ogun, Ogun state, this year's rains brought disaster for smallholder Glory Sunday, destroying her maize and pumpkin crops. “Only a little maize survived. The ugu (fluted pumpkin) was completely destroyed,” she says. “It couldn't survive because of too much flood water on the farm. I might not survive the flood if it comes again.”
It was a severe financial blow, the flooded farm destroyed months of hard work and a harvest that would have supported her four children. “If everything had gone well, we could have made about 500,000 naira (£270) from the ugu.”
In Lagos, Kenechukwu Okosa had gone to church on the morning of the last Sunday in June. On his way back to his business, Cloudearth Farms in Okota, he began receiving calls that his fish farm was flooding. “The caller told me on the phone that everything don go, all your fish don go, my heart just sank.”
Okosa says he had never imagined that the flood could submerge the farm. “When I got into the compound, I saw some of my fish swimming around,” he says. “It felt devastating. My partner and I are contemplating just giving up on the business.” They lost nearly 8,000 fish and 32 chickens to the flood.
Displacement and Uncertainty
Beyond the immediate loss of homes and livelihoods, Arjun Jain, the UN refugee agency's representative in Nigeria, said families displaced by disasters face overwhelming uncertainty. “They are forced to grapple with pressing questions about survival, their safety and future. They come in with a lot of trauma, and when you compound that with massive, forced displacement, those worries just become more intense.”
While acknowledging that disasters strain individuals, Jain says strong family and community networks remain key psychological protections.
In Sogunle, Solomon Kehinde was unable to afford hotel accommodation after he was flooded out of his home, and has taken temporary shelter with a friend, along with his wife and three children. Although the waters have receded, Kehinde says the psychological trauma from the event has left him and his family unable to sleep in their home. “I can't sleep here for now because I'm scared of frogs, scorpions or snakes. The flood could have carried them into my apartment,” he says.
According to Jain, the act of leaving is only part of the story. “What you see is someone fleeing floods, but actually they are fleeing a lot more and carrying a lot more than just the clothes on their backs.”
Mental Health Services Overlooked
For decades, Nigeria has had a significant treatment gap for mental illness, with few psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric social workers for more than 220 million people. Services are mainly in urban hospitals, limiting access to specialised care. Survivors rely on relatives, neighbours and churches. Humanitarian efforts focus on shelter, food and medical care, often overlooking mental health despite evidence of long-term psychological impacts of climate disasters.
Prof Godson Ana, of the University of Ibadan's department of environmental health sciences, attributes Kehinde's fears to a natural psychological response. “When victims are displaced from their homes, it severely affects their mental wellbeing, disrupts livelihoods, threatens survival, and halts socioeconomic activities,” Ana says, noting that repeated disasters can create a cycle of climate-related anxieties.
