Federal Government, on Thursday, warned that river flooding will begin by the ending of July, saying 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are likely to experience some devastating situations.
The government also warned that continual flooding might also worsen the cholera epidemic currently ravaging some states.
National Centre for Disease Control, on Wednesday, disclosed that as of Wednesday, cholera outbreak had resulted in 63 deaths and 2,102 suspected cases.
Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof Joseph Utsev, said at a press conference on Thursday that what the country has been experiencing since May is flash/urban floods resulting from high rainfall intensities of long duration, poor and blocked drainage systems in the urban areas.
Utsev said from July ending, the country might start experiencing River flooding, which might be more devastating.
He listed states at high risk to include:
Akwa Ibom
Anambra
Benue
Bayelsa
Cross River
Delta
Edo
Jigawa
Kogi
Kebbi
Kaduna
Niger
Nasarawa
Ondo
Ogun
Rivers
Taraba
FCT
The Minister explained that the country was located at the lowest portion of River Niger Basin, which means that once the upper catchment of the Basin gets flooded, Nigeria should be prepared to experience flooding incidents.
Concerning the Lagdo dam in Cameroon, the Minister said the operators had informed the country that they are currently filling the dam for hydropower generation.
He added that the flow situation at Wuroboki is relatively normal now and there is no cause for alarm.
Regarding Federal Government’s plans to mitigate the annual flooding from the release of water from Lagdo dam, the Minister explained that arrangements were almost completed to build buffer dams along the water channel to camp water from the dam.
The designs of the dams, he said, had been done and work is almost at the implementation stage.
On cholera, the minister warned that increasing flooding may worsen the ravaging outbreak, adding that a presidential committee has been set up to see how the outbreak can be tackled.
He said the committee was also looking at the issue of open defecation, which according to him, is another causal factor for cholera.
He urged the state, local governments, other stakeholders and the general public to observe measures to prevent the ugly flooding menace of the past years.
