No agreement with Cameroon on construction of dam, Nigerian govt responds to criticism over flooding

The Federal Government has clarified widespread reports about an agreement with Cameroon of the construction of a dam in order to control the flow of water from the Benue River.

This was disclosed on Wednesday by the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, at the Budget Defence with the Senate Committee on Water Resources, in Abuja.

He stated that there was no record of such an agreement, but there are engineering problems as the government constructs the Dasin Dam to reduce floods from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon.

Adamu claimed that it took Cameroon up to 24 hours to notify Nigeria of the Lagos Dam’s water release.

The minister added that even though the Lagdo Dam occasionally releases water without warning, it only makes up 1% of Nigeria’s floods.

Read also:‘One-third of Anambra land mass destroyed by flood’ —Dep. Gov. Ibezim

He claimed that heavy rains are the cause of 80% of the floods that occur in some areas of Nigeria.

Floods have hit parts of Nigeria 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 flooding caused by torrential rainfall of late.

Houses and farmlands have been submerged in Lagos, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Ebonyi, Anambra, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Imo, Abia States, and the Federal Capital Territory.

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