Flooding

Sen. Barnabas Gemade says he will move a motion in the Senate to advise the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to begin a national programme captive dams’ building to curb flooding.

He made the promise in Wednesday in Makurdi, observing that the programme would be necessary to end the incessant flooding disaster in the country.

Flood pixs

Gemade, representing Benue North-East, expressed worry that the recent flooding in the state affected 21 local governments.

He explained that the captive dams should be built along river tributaries for every river to have enough reservoirs to hold water during downpour and also to prevent overflow.

“Today, we have only about six or seven major dams in Nigeria, no captives dams anywhere in the rural areas, in countries such as India, one state will have about 2,000 captives dams.

“The reason for this is that every river must have at least four to six dams along the way to control the volume of water flow.

“This is to ensure that when downpours occur, there will be reservoirs to check the water so that the major rivers will receive the waters gradually,’’ he said.

“Water from the high mountains of Cameroon, Adamawa down to Plateau flow forcefully and freely downward to Nigeria.

“The water finds its way to the lowest point of Benue, Kogi and all the states along that axis to the south,’’ he said.

Benue State Emergency Management Agency reports that a large part of the state was affected by flooding recently.

NAN