Flood warnings in Nigeria over launch of water from Cameroon dam

Authorities in Nigeria have warned of the potential for flooding in 11 states after neighbouring Cameroon mentioned it might begin regulated releases from its Lagdo dam following latest heavy rainfall in west and central Africa.

Umar Mohammed, the director-general of the Nigeria Hydrological Providers Company (NHSA), indicated that the discharges can be gradual “to keep away from … triggering substantial flooding downstream in Nigeria” and that there was “no want for alarm”. Nonetheless, 11 Nigerian states from north to south lie alongside the Benue River’s stream trajectory and are anticipated to be affected to a point.

“The water discharge is anticipated to progressively escalate to 1,000m³/s over the subsequent seven days primarily based on the influx from the upstream Garoua River, which serves as the first supply into the reservoir and a big tributary to the Benue River,” Mohammed mentioned.

The Garoua River in Cameroon’s North area runs alongside the financial institution of the bigger Benue River that flows by each nations. For years, the reservoir’s releases have been a supply of headache for its bigger neighbour. In 2022, releases led to the loss of greater than 600 lives and an estimated $9bn in damages, in accordance with the Nigerian Nationwide Bureau of Statistics.

The NHSA mentioned it had been notified by authorities in Cameroon on Tuesday that that they had began managed water releases from Lagdo dam. A spokesperson for Cameroon’s utility ENEO, which manages the dam, informed Reuters the dam had not been opened as of Wednesday morning.

The flood alert comes per week after hundreds within the north-eastern hub of Maiduguri had been displaced by torrential rains after the collapse of a close-by dam which had been so uncared for for years that cracks had begun to seem on its partitions.

The incident, which prompted a bridge to break down and drowned some wild animals together with reptiles and lions, let others unfastened into the metropolis and in addition facilitated the escape of greater than 200 inmates from the town jail. The official loss of life toll is 38 however some residents say the true determine exceeds that.

One of many three vitamin centres run by the Worldwide Rescue Committee (IRC) was reduce off by the flood. Twenty-six kids had been evacuated from it, mentioned Babatunde Ojei, its nation director in Nigeria, on Wednesday.

“Might Allah assist us cease the tragedy; the scenario that we discover ourselves in, the environmental drawback and local weather change,” the Information Company of Nigeria quoted President Bola Tinubu as saying throughout a go to on Monday, days after his deputy led a federal delegation to Maiduguri.

Nigeria’s hydrological company first gave discover of a nationwide catastrophe through the launch of the the 2024 Annual Flood Outlook in April, forecasting floods in as many as 29 of Nigeria’s 36 states. Help employees say 1.3m hectares (3.2m acres) of land nationwide has already been submerged as of 10 September. About half of that was cropland.

Throughout the nation, the impression of local weather change continues to compound the woes of a few of its most susceptible households. Rural poverty is widespread, as is malnutrition in a area with a number of, generally concurrent, conflicts.

Excessive rainfall is extra frequent and extra intense due to human-caused local weather breakdown throughout many of the world, notably in Europe, most of Asia, central and japanese North America, and components of South America, Africa and Australia. It is because hotter air can maintain extra water vapour. Flooding has more than likely turn into extra frequent and extreme in these areas because of this, however can be affected by human elements, such because the existence of flood defences and land use.

In Maiduguri, the birthplace of the Boko Haram insurgency that has decimated villages since 2009 when its founder was killed extrajudicially, the floods have introduced a brand new dimension of helplessness for native folks.

“I by no means pray for even my enemy to expertise such a factor,” Aisha Aliyu, a resident of Maiduguri, informed AFP final week. She is briefly staying at one of many eight camps opened to soak up survivors.

In Gubio, one other camp, an unknown variety of suspected cholera circumstances have been reported, mentioned Ojei. if confirmed, a cholera outbreak would put many kids “at excessive danger … attributable to present vulnerabilities corresponding to diarrhoea and malaria,” he added.