THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT THE FLOODING IN NIGERIA

With the flood in Florida receding, one can only help but imagine what it is like in Nigeria, I mean the ugly truth about it

It is even more painful cos the flooding is not entirely caused by natural causes. It is somewhat artificial.

Worse is the Nigerian government response to the flood. It any all appear as news until you actually get to hear from people who are truly affected by it.

So what caused the flood?

Initially, I thought it was a normal environmental hazard, I mean, I’m a graduate of Environmental Biology.

So I just felt it’s the water body reacting or perhaps it’s due to climate change. Not until I started making research on the flood.

The Lagodo Dam in Cameroon, (one of the bordering countries to Nigeria), is the major cause of the flooding.

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Now, the construction of this dam located in Northern Cameroon began in 1977 and ended in 1982.

Initially, the Cameroonian and Nigerian Governments had agreed to build two dams so that when excess water is released from the Cameronian dam,

it will be contained by the Nigerian dam which would be two and a half times bigger and won’t result in flooding

The Dasin Hausa Dam in Nigeria

The Nigerian Government agreed to construct the Dasin Hausa Dam in Adamawa State to lessen the impact of any potential flooding from the Lagdo dam in Cameroon.

The Dasin Hausa dam was supposed to be two and a half the size of the Lagodo dam,

The dam project which was sited at the Dasin Village of Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State was supposed to generate 300 megawatts of electricity and irrigate about 150,000 hectares of land in Adamawa, Taraba, and Benue states.

But regrettably, the Dasin Hausa dam has not been completed since 1982.

What has the Nigerian government done so far?

Nigerians are not so proud of the government’s response to these emergencies.

The awareness is not even as high as it should be. It is just recently the effect started hitting on everyone. When the flood started dividing roads.

Now, there are government agencies like National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), National Agricultural Land Development Authority, to over see this, but the response isn’t coming as quick as it should.

Although, the agency for emergencies NEMA, had announced this earlier in September, as informed by the Cameroonian authorities, but there is little that could have been done.

How about the affected Nigerians?

In a time when Africa’s most populous nation is going through recession, this is the worst that could hit a family.

At this point, you don’t think of education or any other thing. Food is the only thing you think of. Can the government really provide enough?

These are the relief items distributed by Bayelsa state government to it's people affected by the flood. #bayelsagovt Shaaaaaame. Shame on you @govdouyediri . This is how little you value your people. Tueh#floodinNigeria #floodinBayelsastate pic.twitter.com/enOLgXLi4j

— Beatrice Must be Obeyed (@obey_beatrice) October 17, 2022

Imagine people being cut off from water, light, food, every single basic amenity of life.

With over 600 dead, and over 1.2 million Nigerians displaced more is yet to come.

It is being rumoured that in states like Bayelsa, corpses are seen floating, as graves are being levelled by the flood.

What about wild life?

No body seems to have thought of that yet? How about pythons and other animals that have been displaced? Where are they? Won’t they feed?

It appears that no one has thought of alligators and crocodiles. When you think of these, it gets more scary. Over 6 states of the country, yet there is yet to be an end to this.