The UN officials tracking the overflow spillways at the Lagdo Dam say flood water since September killed at least 100 persons and has forced nearly 40,000 more people from their homes in parts of Northeast Nigeria.
Last month, Cameroonian authorities released overflow spillways at Lagdo Dam to ease the pressure on the dam from the rising reservoir.
The water from the reservoir emptied into the Benue river, forcing flooding downriver, officials from the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
Floods from months of heavy downpours in the region had already displaced many people. About 39,500 not already in IDP camps, have been displaced by the floods, the IOM in Nigeria said in a statement.
The statement adds that more than 15,000 people who were already Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Northeast Nigeria “are in immediate need of shelter and food due to floods which destroyed their camps.”
Public Information Officer for IOM, Stylia Kampani explained that the situation has caused his organisation to commence the provision of “emergency shelter and other assistance to some of the tens of thousands affected by the ongoing deadly flooding in the region.”
Quoting IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix, (DTM), Kampani read out that at least 120 people in Bauchi State, Northeast Nigeria, had “died or were injured due to extreme weather conditions between 1st and 12th Sept.”
“Heavy rainfall and strong winds have caused serious damage to shelters and infrastructure in camps and other sites for IDPs since the onset of Nigeria’s rainy season in June,” the information officer said.
“IOM is providing relief items including blankets, kitchen sets, mattresses and floor mats, and will also provide emergency shelter to more than 1,500 internally displaced persons. However, funding remains a major challenge to scaling up the response,” the communique reads.
This year’s unprecedented flooding in most parts of crisis-ridden northeast Nigeria has led to serious food shortages, especially in lowlands and flood-prone communities where the overflow washed over supply routes, bridges and farmlands.
“Due to the extent and nature of the floods, if adequate actions are not taken now, the well-being of IDPs will be gravely impacted,” IOM Acting Chief of Mission in Nigeria, Prestige Murima, was quoted to have said.
Records indicate that Cameroon and Nigeria were supposed to build two dams at inception, such that the Nigerian dam, known as Dasin Hausa dam which was to be in Adamawa State, would contain water released from the Lagdo Dam at any point in time.