Yesterday, the federal government made a commitment to oversee the management of water release from the Lagdo dam in Cameroon. They assured that the potential flood resulting from this release would be less severe compared to the catastrophic flooding witnessed in 2022, which marked the worst inundation experienced by the country in the past decade.
Ishaq Salako, the Minister of State for Environment, conveyed this assurance on the same day that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) sought to calm the Nigerian populace, emphasizing that the situation was well under control.
It is worth noting that the Cameroonian government had communicated its intentions to NEMA over the weekend, outlining their 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.
