The Federal government has clarified widespread reports regarding an agreement with Cameroon on the construction of a dam in order to control the flow of water from the Benue River.
The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, made the clarification on Wednesday during the Budget Defence before the Senate Committee on Water Resources, in Abuja.
Adamu denied the existence of any such agreement, adding, however that 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 Lagdo Dam’s water release.
The minister said that even though the Lagdo Dam occasionally releases water without warning, it constitutes a paltry 1% of Nigeria’s floods.
He explained that heavy rains are the cause of 80% of the floods that occur in some parts of Nigeria.
Floods have hit parts of Nigeria in the last two months with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reporting that over 603 persons have died and no fewer than 2.5 million others displaced as a result of the floods arising from the torrential rainfall.
Houses and farmlands have been submerged in Lagos, Bayelsa, Rivers, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Ebonyi, Anambra, Bauchi and Gombe states. Others include Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Imo, Abia states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).