- Title: Nigeria flags flood risk in 11 states as Cameroon prepares to release dam water
- Date: 18th September 2024
- Summary: BAYELSA, NIGERIA (SEPTEMBER 18, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ENVIRONMENTALIST, ALAGOA MORRIS, SAYING: "I want the federal government to go beyond predictions of doom, they should proffer solutions, lasting solutions." PAPERS ON FLOOR MORRIS SHOWING BATHROOM, SAYING: "You see how dirty the floor is, it is because of the...that is how whenever it floods, it comes in
- Embargoed: 2nd October 2024 16:41
- Keywords: Accidents Dam Disaster Displaced Flood Release
- Location: BAYELSA & RIVERS, NIGERIA
- City: BAYELSA & RIVERS, NIGERIA
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: Africa,Disaster/Accidents,Floods
- Reuters ID: LVA006500418092024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: For Alagoa Morris, the trauma of repeated flooding is all too familiar.
His home and office are affected by floods every rainy season, with the situation worsening when neighboring Cameroon releases water from its dam. The consequences are property loss and weeks of homelessness for his family.
"We suffered so much in terms of furniture damage, books got spoilt in the office, and then my wife also lost her birds that she was rearing, that were very healthy, over 100 broilers, all of them died," he told Reuters on Wednesday (September 18).
Once again, Nigeria's hydrological services agency has warned of potential flooding in 11 states, including Morris' state Bayelsa, after Cameroon said it was starting to release water from one of its largest dams following recent heavy rainfall in West and Central Africa.
The warning comes as Nigeria is already grappling with severe floods in northeastern Borno state where a dam burst its walls after heavy rains that have also caused floods in Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger - all part of Africa's Sahel region that usually receives little rain.
The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) said it had been notified by authorities in Cameroon on Tuesday that they had started controlled water releases from Lagdo dam.
It urged federal and state authorities in Nigeria "to step up vigilance and deploy adequate preparedness measures to reduce possible impacts of flooding that may occur as a result of increase in flow levels of our major rivers at this period".
Morris, who is the Deputy Executive Director of Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN), says he wants the "federal government to go beyond predictions of doom, they should proffer solutions, lasting solutions."
"The senate has urged President Tinubu to go back and work on the Hausa Dasin dam, to ensure the conclusion of that dam, so that by now that Cameroon has released water, the Hausa Dasin dam will be able to serve as shock absorber, it will receive water from it and then if need be, release it gradually downstream, then it will not come with that type of force," he added.
In 2022, Nigeria lost more than 600 people and farmlands to the worst flooding in a decade following heavy rain and after Cameroon released water from Lagdo dam.
Experts said then that Nigeria's failure to complete a dam of its own that was supposed to backstop the Cameroonian one worsened the disaster.
Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, is prone to flooding but critics say defective infrastructure and poor planning worsen the situation.
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