The Federal Government has promised to manage the release of water from Lagdo dam in Cameroon, saying the flood caused by the dam would be less severe than that of 2022 which was the worst flooding the country experienced in the last decade.
The Minister of State for Environment, Ishaq Salako, who gave the promise yesterday, spoke on a day the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, asked Nigerians not to panic, assuring that everything was under control.
Recall that the Cameroonian government had last weekend, written NEMA informing it of plans to release water from the dam
The minister, who spoke in an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, said flooding was inevitable as a result of opening of the dam, adding that his ministry was working on preventive measures.
He said the ministry had also been warning and alerting people residing close to the River Benue banks, and appealing that they move to higher grounds.
He said: “The ministry is aware and I’m sure most Nigerians are aware that Cameroon wants to open that dam.
“Thankfully, it’s not a sudden opening because the management of the opening of that dam is going to cause less severe flooding, that is what we envisage compared to 2022.
“However, you know that there’s been a lot of warnings, alerts and requests for people who are living on the banks of the River Benue to relocate to higher grounds.
“So we expect that some flooding will occur as a result of the opening of that dam. And it is inevitable because if the dam overflows on its own, the disaster that it will cause will be worse.
“So it’s better to have a managed release of the water in the dam to ensure that the damage is not as much.”
Salako said the Bola Tinubu administration hoped to hasten the process of completing the alternative dam in Adamawa State, in order to hold water when the dam was opened in subsequent years.
“On the issue of long term prevention of flooding from the opening of that dam, for some time now, there has been an approach by the government of Nigeria to build another dam in Adamawa state so that it can hold some of the water when the Cameroon dam is opened.
“So I think going forward, what will help us is if we are able to, of course, implement the dam that is planned to be built, I think the project is actually ongoing but it’s taking a while.
“But hopefully, under this administration, we can focus more on it but that’s really not under the purview of the ministry of environment,” he said.
The minister said the ministry now had a more robust alarm system, compared to 2022, adding that this would help predict when flooding would occur in order to take measures to reduce damages and ensure that no lives were lost.
Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has allayed fears of Nigerians over the release of the excess water from Lagdo Dam, which is located on River Benue in the Republic of Cameroon.
NEMA in a statement by the Head, Press Unit, Manzo Ezekiel, said yesterday it was already working with critical stakeholders at the federal, state and local governments to ensure the release did not cause much negative impacts on the low-lying communities along the states that would be affected.
It is worthy of note that the states on the downstream of River Benue are Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Anambra, Enugu, Edo, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa States.
The statement read: “The agency envisaged this release of excess water from the Lagdo dam, taken note of the likely impacts and considered in the preparations for mitigation and response to the 2023 flood alert.
“Information available from the flow level of River Benue at Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency, NIHSA, gauging station in Makurdi stood at 8.97 metres as of August 25, 2023, compared to 8.80 metres on the same date in 2022.
“In contrast, NIHSA has also provided that the flow level of the River Niger system, specifically at Niamey, Niger Republic, remains stable at a normal level of 4.30 metres. Similarly, inland dams including Kainji, Jebba, and Shiroro reported consistent flow regimes.
“With regard to the hydrological station downstream the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers in Lokoja, Kogi State, are currently within normal limits.
”The downstream monitoring station, however, registered a flow level of 7.80 metres on August 25th, 2023, compared to 8.24 metres on the same date in 2022.”
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