Abuja – The House of Representatives on Thursday, urged the Federal Government to build a buffer dam in Adamawa to mitigate flood any time Cameroun authorities released water from Lagdo Dam.
This followed a motion by Reps. Igariwey Enwo (Ebonyi-PDP) and Sadiq Ibrahim (Adamawa-APC), which was unanimously adopted by members.
Moving the motion, Enwo expressed concern that whenever the Camerounians released water from the dam, low-land communities in Nigeria were threatened with flood.
He said that communities often affected were in Niger, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Anambra, Taraba, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kogi, Benue and Ebonyi.
He recalled that when Cameroun released water from the dam in 2012, the resultant flood in Nigeria led to the death of over 53 people in 11 states of the Federation.
He said it the incident also led to the displacement of over 100,420 persons, paralysis in economic activities and loss of property estimated at about N2.6 trillion.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
The legislator explained that the proposed buffer dam would serve as a shock-absorber to the devastating effects of yearly release of water from the Cameroun’s dam.
According to him, a suitable site for the construction of the buffer dam was chosen in Dasin village in Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
He said that the multi-purpose dam was also expected to generate about 300 megawatts of electricity, irrigate about 150,000 hectares of land and provide employment opportunities for 40,000 persons.
“Since the Camerounian authorities insisted that they would continue to release excess water to avoid the collapse of Lagdo dam, the construction of the Dasin Housa dam, therefore, remains urgent,’’ he said.
Adopting the motion, the lawmakers urged the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Environment to revisit and update the original design and feasibility of Dasin dam done in 1982.
The ministries, according to the house, should take necessary measures to ensure that contract for the construction of the dam was awarded without further delay ‘’to save Nigeria from further avoidable disaster’’. (NAN)