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On Tuesday, October 11, 2022, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development disclosed that over 500 Nigerians have lost their lives as a result of the floods ravaging many parts of the country.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo during a conference in Abuja over 90,000 homes have been damaged with over 70,000 farmlands destroyed.
Sani-Gwarzo said the scale of the 2022 flooding was similar to that of 2012, adding that the Federal Government is prepared to make sure that affected communities get some relief materials.
The cause of the floods
The destructive flooding witnessed since 2012 has been attributed to heavy downpours and the release of water from the Lagdo dam in Cameroon.
Earlier this year, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) had predicted that some parts of the country would witness increased rainfall deep into the rainy season, as an African country would release water from its dam.
But on Monday, October 10, 2022, Pulse explained how the Lagdo dam in Cameroon causes devastating floods that destroyed property and lives in Nigeria every year.
The 2012 flooding claimed hundreds of lives
The 2012 floods claimed hundreds of lives and rendered millions homeless.
According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the 2012 floods, which started in July killed 363 people and displaced over 2.1 million Nigerians.
The flood affected many states in the southern region of the country but two of the most affected states in the northern region were said to be Benue and Kogi states.
For several years, Nigerians living in Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Nasarawa, Taraba, Anambra, Kogi, and Benue, as well as residents of lowland communities and riverine areas in the country have been victims of floods.
Lawmakers’ move to address the problem in 2015
However, three years after the 2012 destructive flooding, the Yakubu Dogara-led House of Representatives in November 2015 deliberated on the need for Nigeria to continue the construction of the abandoned Dasin Hausa Dam to prevent avoidable deaths from flooding.
The lawmaker acknowledged the fact that heavy rainfall is not solely responsible for recurring flooding in Nigeria. They understand that anytime the Lagdo dam authorities in Cameroon released excess water from the dam, it submerges communities in Nigeria.
So, to prevent the recurrence of the 2012 floods, Hon. Igariwey Iduma representing Afikpo North/Afikpo South federal constituency in Ebonyi state moved a motion on the need to complete the building of the Dasin Hausa Dam in Adamawa state.
The lawmakers recalled how the 2012 flooding destroyed lives, and properties and also paralysed economic activities in 11 states.
Iduma also recalled that in 1982, when the government of Cameroon built the Lagdo dam, it advised its Nigerian counterpart “to build a buffer dam downstream which would serve as a shock absorber to the devastating effects of yearly release of water” from the Lagdo dam.
He added that Dasin village in Fufore Local Government was chosen as the site for the construction of the buffer dam in Adamawa state.
The lawmaker called on the Federal Ministry of Water resources and environment to “revisit and update the original design and feasibility of Dasin Hausa dam done in 1982 and take necessary measures to ensure the award of contract for the construction of the dam without further delay to save Nigerians from avoidable disasters”.
Supporting the motion, Hon. Sadiq Ibrahim, in whose village the construction of Dasin Hausa dam was sited said he knew about the building of the dam as far back as 1977 when he was a primary school pupil.
He said: “At that time Mr. Speaker, We saw some white men came to the village measuring and marking some areas at the bank of the river where my village Dasin Hausa situated.
“Mr. Speaker since that time, I have been familiar with the area where the Lagdo dam is built in Cameroon because my area borders the Northern Cameroon, and Mr Speaker, I’m aware that the Lagdo dam in Cameroon commenced construction in 1977 and was completed in 1982.
“Mr. Speaker in 1980, Nigeria and Cameroonian officials held series of meetings and an agreement was made between Nigeria and Cameroon that a buffer zone be built in Dasin Hausa to serve as a barrier to contain water release from Lagdo dam in Cameroon to curb flooding and attendant destruction of properties and lives.”
Ibrahim, who left a banking job in 2001 for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and became a lawmaker in 2015 further revealed that when he moved to Abuja, he found out that the construction of the Dasin Hausa dam was awarded to a Brazilian company.
“I have been on this since those days and when I came to Abuja, I found out from the Ministry of Water Resources contract for the design of this dam was awarded to a Brazilian company that has completed the design and the ministry has also engaged the consultant to come up with a document that would enable the government place advertisement for this dam and this is 33 years from the day this contract was issued”, he said.
He went on to explain five reasons why the Federal Government should allocate funds for the construction of the dam in the 2016 budget.
Apart from the electricity and irrigation purposes of the dam, Ibrahim said the dam when completed would generate 40,000 employment for Nigerians.
He added that the dam was designed to be bigger than the Kainji dam which according to him has a capacity to store 15 billion cubic meters of water.