September 23, (THEWILL) – The news report that the Cameroonian authorities would release water from Lagdo Dam last Tuesday rang so familiar that it, in popular cliche, sounded like a broken record. Similarly, the Nigerian authorities predictably responded in the same manner, just as it had done every year in the past.
As usual, the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, Umar Muhammed, in a warning, urged the federal and state governments to prepare for the flooding that usually comes with the event and listed 11 states at risk. They are Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Edo, Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers and Rivers States.
Another familiar, if not pathetic statement that often comes with the warning, is that persons in the affected states should begin to “relocate to higher ground.” Higher ground, presumably, is a safer place.
These affected states along the flood path which the water released from the Dam in Cameroon would empty have reportedly “started planning temporary shelters for affected residents.”
What immediately strikes a sensible person is that these temporary arrangements for victims of the flood that usually affect lives and property has become a permanent feature of official response to the anticipated disaster.
In 2022, when Nigeria faced one of her worst flooding in recent times, the source was also the Lagdo Dam, coupled with heavy rains that fell that year. As a result, the country lost more than 600 persons and farmlands were destroyed, roads washed away and many buildings submerged.
Water borne diseases ravaged communities in the affected states, which were also invaded by dangerous reptiles, from python to crocodiles and other kinds of snakes. There was a repeat of this incident in 2023. Certainly, there will be an encore in 2024.
Experts, in their assessment of the problem posed by the unwanted water from the dam, have said that Nigeria’s failure to complete a dam of its own that was supposed to backstop the one in Cameroon worsened the disaster.
Considering that the dam problem has been recurring for some time, one would have expected the Nigerian authorities to be more proactive and responsive to the alert from the Cameroonian authorities. But no, this is Nigeria where everything looks like rocket science. It is easy to call on people to make sacrifices by abandoning their ancestral homes for what in the imagination of officials is higher, safer grounds.
Coming at a time the country is reeling from the impact of the flooding on lives and property in Maiduguri, this official, standard response to the challenge posed by the Lagdo Dam is a sad commentary on the official capacity for inventiveness, creativity and respect for life.
Since experts identified what should be done to avoid this annual circus of meaningless statements over the release of water from the dam, why hasn’t Nigeria taken concrete steps to do the needful by constructing a dam on the Cameroon border to contain the water from there.
Indeed, when the Lagdo dam was constructed 42 years ago, between 1977 and 1982, Nigeria and Cameroon had an agreement to build two dams such that when water is released from the Cameroonian dam, the Nigerian dam would contain it and prevent it from causing floods.
The Nigerian dam called Dasin Hausa Dam was to be situated in modern day Adamawa State. Apart from being a buffer to the Lagdo dam, Dasin Hausa dam, conceived to be bigger than the former, was designed to also generate 300 megawatts of electricity and irrigate about 150,000 hectares of land in Adamawa, Taraba and Benue states.
Forty-two years down the line, nothing has happened from the Nigerian end. Nothing paints more vividly the ineptitude of governments over the years in Nigeria.
Nonetheless, it is never too late to re-strategise over an infrastructure with the potential for multi-purpose economic impact on the people, like the uncompleted Dasin Hausa dam. Money cannot be the problem, if the government is serious and focused. With the way money is released for the financing of luxury projects in the country, all that is required is to prioritise high net worth projects like the Dasin Hausa dam.
