The Federal Government has promised to deploy a national coordinated approach involving all arms and levels of government to address the ravaging floods across the country.
Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola announced this yesterday in Abuja at the inaugural edition of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration Scorecard 2015-2023 Series organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Fashola said the Federal Government was worried and concerned about the devastating floods that are impacting many parts of the country.
“It is a very grave matter, very tragic in its human and economic costs. It is going to require all of government approach – from local to state and to Federal Government – to deal with it.
“It is going to require an all-nation approach, perhaps something similar to the way we responded to COVID-19 pandemic where everybody played a role. This is because, really, everybody is impacted one way or the other,” he said.
Also, Water Resources Minister Suleiman Adamu has said Nigeria never signed any agreement with Cameroon to build the Datsin Hausa Dam in Adamawa State for the purpose of stopping water released from Lagdo Dam in the neighbouring country.
Adamu spoke when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Water Resources, headed by Senator Bello Mandiya, to defend the 2022 budget performance and the 2023 budget proposal of the ministry yesterday in Abuja.
He said: “There are so many stories circulating in the media and so on that Nigeria entered into an agreement with Cameroon to build a dam at Datsin Hausa. I have checked the records of the Ministry, there has never been anything like that. Datsin Hausa along with Kashimbila and the entire tributaries of River Benue that have not been dammed and that is why River Benue constitutes the major source of flood from the confluence downwards.
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“Datsin Hausa is on River Benue, but it is not related to the release of Lagdo. The contribution of Lagdo Dam to flood in Nigeria is one per cent. It is not the main reason we have flooding. The trans-boundary waters that come into this country from Rivers Niger and Benue constitute 20 per cent of freshwater that flows into the country. Eighty per cent of the flood in this country is water that we are blessed with from God through the sky.
“So, most of the floods are from the country. The issue of Datsin Hausa is a dam that is identified under the National Water Resources Master Plan to be one the dams that can be a check to reduce flooding.”
Also, more than one-third of the land mass in Anambra State has been devastated by floods in which 17 persons have died as at October 18, Deputy Governor Onyekachi Ibezim said yesterday.
The deputy governor was addressing officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) who brought relief materials to the state in Awka, the state capital.
Ibezim said the “devastating floods hit seven of the 21 local government areas of the state”.
He added: “The situation is too strenuous for us to handle all alone. We provide three meals daily for victims in displaced people’s camps.”
In Delta State, traditional rulers have been forced to relocate from over 16 kingdoms.
The Ovie of Idjerhe Kingdom in Ethiope West Local Government Area, His Royal Majesty, Monday Whiskey (Udurhie I), said this while addressing reporters at his palace yesterday.
Decrying the deaths and displacement of people, the monarch expressed anger over the alleged inaction of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to save the situation.
In the circumstance, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has urged the Federal Government to build new dams and dredge major rivers in the country to check flooding.
Okowa, who addressed reporters after visiting flood victims at some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, said five persons died in floods across the state.
The governor also urged the Federal Government to de-silting Rivers Niger and Benue to increase their depths to accommodate high volume of flood water.