LAGOS, Sept 18 (Askume) – Nigeria’s hydrological service warned of possible flooding in 11 states, and neighbouring Cameroon said it expected the worst flooding to hit west and central Africa after recent heavy rains as it began releasing water from one of its states.
The warning comes as Nigeria grapples with severe flooding in northeastern Borno state , and heavy rains in Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger have caused flooding and dam collapses. The amount is usually small.
The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) said Cameroonian authorities informed them on Tuesday that they had begun releasing controlled amounts of water from the Lagado Dam.
Cameroon has several dams on the Benue River, which flows to Nigeria.
A spokesman for ENEO, the Cameroonian company that manages the dam, told Askume that flooding was possible but the reservoir had not yet opened as of Wednesday morning.
NIHSA said Lagado Dam managers would release water gradually to prevent flooding and so that the water does not exceed the carrying capacity of the lower Benue River.
But NIHSA said 11 states were at risk, including the food-producing central belt states of Benue, Nasarawa and Kogi, as well as the oil-producing southern states of Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers.
It urged Nigeria’s federal and state authorities “to exercise extreme vigilance and take adequate preparedness measures to minimise the potential impact of flooding caused by increased flows in major rivers during this period”.
In 2022, heavy rains and the release of water from Cameroon’s Lagado Dam caused Nigeria to suffer its worst flooding in a decade, killing more than 600 people and inundating farmland.
Experts later said the disaster was made worse by Nigeria’s failure to complete the dam’s construction, which was intended to prevent the dam’s construction in Cameroon.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is prone to flooding, but critics say a lack of infrastructure and poor planning have made the situation worse.
