Flooding: FG denies agreement with Cameroon on dam construction

The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, on Wednesday refuted claims that Nigeria and Cameroon had reached an agreement to build a dam to reduce flooding when water from the Lagdo Dam is released.

The minister, who stated this in Abuja at the budget defence of his ministry at the Senate Committee on Water Resources, said “there is no record of such an agreement.”

He, however, noted that the government is in the process of building the Dasin Dam to mitigate flooding from Cameroon’s Lagdo Dam, but there are engineering concerns.

Adamu also disclosed that Cameroon did not inform Nigeria about the release of water from the Lagdo Dam until 24 hours after it was released.

According to him, Lagdo dam contributes only one percent to the flooding in Nigeria.

“80 percent of the floods in parts of Nigeria are as a result of ceaseless rainfalls.”

Persecondnews reports that Nigeria has been hit by floods in over 20 States 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 floods caused by torrential rainfall.

Houses and farmlands have reportedly been submerged across the states including Lagos, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Kogi, Niger, and Plateau.

Others are Benue, Ebonyi, Anambra, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Imo and Abia States.