The Federal Government, through the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), has proposed to build five buffer dams to contain incessant floodings which often arise from the release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon.
NIHSA Director-General, Umar Mohammed, made this known when he featured on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief breakfast programme on Thursday.
The Agency also warned Nigerians resident in floodplains to relocate immediately to safe spaces in anticipation of attendant floods that annually come with the release of water from the Lagdo Dam.
NIHSA listed flood-prone states to include Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Edo, Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, and Rivers.
Mohammed, who was represented on the programme by the Agency’s Director of Operations and Hydrology, Femi Bejide, said a report has been submitted to the Presidency, on the way forward noting that some of dams in Nigeria have to be de-silted.
“What has to be done also is that there’s a report that has been submitted to the Presidency. We have to have buffer dams and five have been proposed and the Federal Government is looking at that already,” he said.
“But in the interim, some of our dams have to be de-silted, the tributaries of River Niger and Benue have to be expanded.
“I learnt that there is a little issue with the design and they are trying to amend the design. I believe that in the next two to three years that would have been put in place.”
The release of water from the Lagdo Dam comes days after water from overflowing Alau Dam killed over 30 persons and swept away thousands of homes in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State.
