No fewer than 10,000 Nigerians in Adamawa State have been displaced from their homes and farmlands in the aftermath of severe flooding caused by the release of excess water from Cameroun's Lagdo Dam.
The flood, according to the Director General National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Mohommed Sani Sidi, now threatens human lives and is disrupting socio-economic activities in the affected communities.
Speaking at an emergency meeting to review the situation, Sidi said: "The release of the water has also threatened human lives, disrupted socio-economic activities, led to environmental degradation and large scale ecological dislocation.
"Report from the High Commission of the Republic of Cameroun received on the 23rd August 2012 indicated that if the trend of heavy rainfall experienced this year continues in the next few weeks, more water will be released from the reservoir till October this year."As soon as the report was received from the Camerounian Embassy in Nigeria, NEMA contacted all the Governors of the frontline states of Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue and their respective State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA) to warn them about the impending floods.
"We requested them to alert their communities at risk through relevant communication procedures especially the local media on the urgent need to avoid socio-economic activities along flood plains and relocate to safer grounds where necessary.
"The zonal coordinators for the North East and North Central zonal offices of NEMA have also been directed to liaise with relevant stakeholders and the state SEMAs to sustain public sensitization on the danger of the floods and the need to take necessary proactive measures to avoid the risk of human lives and the loss of properties.
"North East Zonal Office of the agency is right now on ground, working assiduously with the respective SEMAs to compile assessment reports, establish internally displaced persons camps, and provide necessary relief materials and first aid in collaboration with our local humanitarian partners." Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Is cameroun not going to pay 4 damages to communities involved?
ReplyDeletelink to A study of flooding risks in the Benue river down stream of LAGDO dam in Northern Cameroon. curiously the data analysis stopped at the Nigerian border as if the water flow will respect country boundaries!
ReplyDeletehttp://quod.lib.umich.edu/g/gefame/4761563.0005.101?rgn=main;view=fulltext
People have died in Nigeria this week, do we know IF and how many people died in Cameroon?
Note the recommendation in the study conclusions that asked for "Radio broadcasts from Benue FM" in Nigeria?
The response in Nigeria HAS BEEN TO PROVIDE RELIEF after assessment, this took how many days? no mention of measure to prevent recurrence. the Cameroonian consulate informed Nigeria before the flood, so what was done? Oh it was during Salah or shortly afterward and there was no one home!
can you please search the french media for any casualty figures in Cameroon or the procedures used by AES SONEL to manage the exposure of Cameroonians to the flood.
ReplyDelete"Conclusion
While many have benefited from the services which the Lagdo Dam provides, its construction and operation have had considerable negative societal and environmental consequences. ... .....
This study of risks of flooding of the main Benue River bed clearly shows the physical characteristics of the environmental, human, and socioeconomic factors at stake. Flooding is related to larger than normal water flow and, as a consequence, we are more concerned with natural phenomena than with that of human management. Thus, periodic flooding is mainly explained by the return of heavy rains after years of drought during which time the valley was attractive to different groups of migrant for agricultural and pastoral occupations. Land cleared because of intensive agricultural and pastoral activities favours surface flows of water which contribute to flooding, particularly for the peasant communities, which periodically suffer from the downstream overflows of the Lagdo Dam.
To manage such risks does not just mean simply consulting the tables and making comparisons, or applying mathematical formulae. The risky zones are defined as presented on the maps, and then must be explicitly treated in terms of activities, which include obtaining opinions of the populations, and recording infrastructures in the major river bed. .. .... chiefly the AES-SONEL, to manage the future of this highly important valley for the development of the Northern Province, in particular, and of Cameroon, in general. Finally, this research makes available permanent spatial information, including both qualitative and quantitative data, about the environment in its different forms.
The Benue River bed downstream of the Lagdo Dam remains an underexploited agro-pastoral area, because all present planning is concerned with less than 30.000 hectares, whereas the useful area could be increased fourfold with new equipment and improved hydraulic infrastructure. It is important to rehabilitate this agro-pastoral resource, which is all the more important as the climatic changes (e.g., rainfall in certain years and repeated droughts during others), the demographic pressure, and techniques of production not adapted to the new hydro-ecologic situation) have generated a profound ecological imbalance. This situation has contributed to phenomena including silting up of the river bed, destruction of aquatic habitats, hydrological erosion, dumping of refuse, and pollution by urban centres.
Such rehabilitation may be accomplished through:
1.The placement of boundary-markers indicating sectors with flooding or erosion risks along the main Benue River bed, from the Lagdo Dam to the Nigerian frontier;
2.The use of water in the Lagdo Dam according to controlled filling contour lines;
3.The increase of the number of pluviometric and hydrometric stations for the systematic remote collection of data and follow-up in the Benue basin;
4.The installation of an alert system providing radio broadcasts in the local language at the Benue FM and at Radio Garoua;
5.The development of a system of participatory water management and the supervision of agro-pastoral spaces in the Benue valley; and
6.The promotion and popularization of the practice of out-of-season cultivation, taking into account the hydro-agricultural calendar.
These recommendations represent a compromise between what is socially desirable,
Why should Cmeroun pay for our lack of response readiness or taking advantage of DATA avaiable since 15 years or more?
ReplyDelete