Nigeria issues flood warning as Cameroon opens dam

Nigeria issues flood warning as Cameroon opens dam
by AFP Staff Writers
Lagos (AFP) Sept 18, 2024

Nigerian authorities have warned that at least 11 states along one of its main rivers are at risk of flooding as neighbouring Cameroon begins releasing water from one of its dams.

Umar Ibrahim Mohammed, director general of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), a federal body managing water resources, said Cameroonian authorities plan "regulated water releases" from the Lagdo dam in the northern region of the country.

The release was scheduled to start from September 17, Mohammed said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The water is expected to course down to River Benue in central Nigeria and could flood communities in the country's northeast, north-central, south-south and southeast regions.

"It is highly imperative for all states that are contiguous to the river Benue system... to step up vigilance and deploy adequate preparedness measures to reduce possible impacts of flooding," Mohammed said.

Cameroon officials were not immediately available for comment on the dam waters release.

Despite his warnings for states to make preparations, Mohammed said he did not expect the release of dam waters to cause major damage.

A spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Ezekiel Manzo said they had been preparing for any eventual flooding.

"We've been warning the states," he told AFP.

Google's Flood Hub projection application, which monitors areas at risk of flooding, shows communities along the river in southeastern and north-central regions are in danger of floods from rising river water levels.

Abundant rainfall and opening of the Cameroon dam have caused massive flooding in the past in Nigeria.

In 2022, more than 500 people died and 1.4 million were displaced in the country's worst floods in a decade.

The latest severe flooding disaster in Nigeria killed at least 31 people and forced 400,000 out of their homes in northeastern city of Maiduguri, with an emergency official saying that about a million people could be displaced.

This year, at least 285 people have been killed by floods with more than 640,000 displaced in the country as of September 18, figures published by NEMA showed.

Around 127,500 hectares of farmlands have also been affected.

The 300-metre (985-feet) Lagdo dam, 50 kilometres south of the Cameroonian city of Garoua, was completed in 1982 and supplies electricity to the country's north.