Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources, debunked reports (NOT by Newsclick Nigeria) on Wednesday that Nigeria had reached an agreement with Cameroon to build a dam to reduce flooding when water from the Lagdo Dam is released.
This was stated by the minister in Abuja during the Budget Defence with the Senate Committee on Water Resources.
He stated that there is no record of such an agreement, but there are engineering concerns while the government is building the Dasin Dam to mitigate flooding from Cameroon’s Lagdo Dam.
Adamu said Cameroon did not inform Nigeria about the release of water from the Lagdo Dam until 24 hours after it was released.
The minister further said the Lagdo Dam contributes only one percent to the flooding in Nigeria, even though sometimes the water is released without notice.
According to him, 80 percent of the floods in parts of Nigeria are as a result of ceaseless rainfalls.
Floods have hit parts of Nigeria in the last two months with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) saying that about 2.5 million persons were affected and over 603 persons killed by the flooding caused by torrential rainfall of late.
Houses and farmlands have been submerged in Lagos, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Ebonyi, Anambra, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Imo, Abia States, and the Federal Capital Territory.
Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State on Tuesday said Nigeria must have a national emergency conversation about flooding to avert recurrence.
“What is the nation doing to prepare for the next one because we know that it will happen again and again? It has been happening, and Cameroon will soon open the dam in the next one or two years. What is the national plan to deal with the next one? Whether we are going to build dams or embankments along the banks of the rivers. I think as a nation, we need a national emergency conversation,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily monitored by Newsclick Nigeria.