The Presidential Committee on Flood Prevention Action Plan is proposing to dam water from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon and provide spill passages to prevent flooding.

Ali Ibrahim-Dalla, the leader of the presidential committee, revealed this during an inspection visit to some flood-prone communities in Yola on Wednesday. 

Mr Ibrahim-Dalla said the committee had visited the 1.8 billion cubic metre capacity Kiri water Dam in Shelleng and the Dasin Hausa Dam in Fufore Local Government Areas of Adamawa State.

He explained that the dams contributing to flooding in the communities would be recommended for the erection of dykes and other embankments.

“The committee has the time frame of 90 days within which to complete its assignment and submit a report on its findings and recommendations,” he said.

According to him, the committee’s mandate is to visit flood-prone areas, identify causes and recommend to the federal government some of the remedial measures to prevent flooding.

Earlier, the managing director of the Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority, Abubakar Muazu, attributed the cause of flooding to indiscriminate human activities.

He said deliberate acts of cutting trees, erection of structures on waterways, climate change, vegetative cover, and environmental abuse were some of the factors causing floods.

Mr Muazu said enforcing environmental laws and constructing additional dams would help address some of the flooding challenges.

According to him, about four additional dams are needed to be built in Taraba.

“No fewer than 17 million hectares of land were submerged by flood nationwide in 2022, which is 57 per cent of what happened in 2012 in which 30 million hectares were affected,” the committee chairman said.

Aminu Suleiman, executive secretary, Adamawa Emergency Management Agency (ADSEMA), said 180,000 people were affected by flood across the 21 LGAs in the state in 2022.

He said 70 per cent of crops and farmlands were destroyed, 58 lives lost, and 71 injured, with 15 lives lost in Madagali Local Government Area alone.

“The state government has spent N350 million in resettlement and provision of relief to the victims,” the executive secretary said.

(NAN)