ACCORDING to the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) there is a chance that more states could experience flooding in the coming days, particularly in the North Central, South East, and South Western States.
The Director-General of NiMet, Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, and Mr. Clement Nze, Director-General of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), made mention of it at the opening ceremony of the workshop on Hydro-meteorological status and outlook system (HydroSOS).
According to the NiMet DG, there will be high intensity rains in the upcoming days, and when combined with the dams being opened, there will be more flooding.
Massive flooding in the states of Benue and Kogi are reminiscent of the floods of 2012. Deaths and property losses amounting to billions of naira have been caused by the most recent floods.
“Remember, we issued the forecast in February and we followed up with the monthly updates that we’re going to have above normal rainfall in most part of the country. So in terms of the rainfall induced floods, we’ve seen the peak but remember we told you that this rainwater gets collected into the reservoirs and dams, and whenever they are filled, it gets spilled. So, on the13th of September, the Lagbo Dam was released. And also Kainji and Shiroro dams were also were released. So what we’re witnessing now is riverine flooding” Prof. Matazu explained.
“And from the information we’re getting from NIHSA we’re going to see more floods. And now the rain is concentrating on the North Central and the southern states. So that will be a combination of short duration, high intensity rain, which riverine flooding. So we’re going to see more of these floods in the north central states as we are seeing in Kogi and also south eastern and southwestern states as we are beginning to see in a number of parts of South West.”
He added that once the full effects of climate change start to be seen on our planet, water related risks are going to worsen in the years to come.
“Water-related hazards including floods and droughts have, in many regions of Africa, become a major cause of food shortages, strains on livelihoods, health risks, and conflicts.
The flood that occurred, according to the DG NIHSA, was mostly brought on by rainfall rather than dam releases.
He added that the rise in water levels of the Rivers Niger and Benue, along with the fact that some people had constructed on flood plains, made the floods unavoidable.
According to Alan Jenkins, the deputy director of the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology, NiMet was the first organization in the world to use the HydroSOS,
