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DAM-L Flood Report from Nigerian group ANEEJ/LS (fwd)
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Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 10:42:36 -0700
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From: Lori Pottinger <lori@irn.org>
Subject: Flood Report from Nigerian group ANEEJ/LS
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DAMS AID FLOODS TO WREAK DISASTER ON NIGERIA
Jigawa and Kano States of Nigeria, with vast plains
for fertile land traversed by meandering Rivers Kano
and Hadeja plays host to Tiga and Challawa Gorge dams
? the two biggest in the area. Recently, a day?s
continuous rainfall, the highest in over ten years,
finally triggered off the spilling over of excess
water, causing the rivers and their tributeries to
overflow their banks.
The consequences was a disaster, the worst in the
history of dams in Nigeria.
In Jigawa State, the Commissioner for education,
Alhaji Abba Anas Adamu who is also the state
commissioner for food confirmed that about 100 persons
were killed while victims of the flood in 25 local
government areas of the state have lost over #12
billion naria of USD 1 billion worth of properties.
He confirmed that about 300 villages were destroyed by
the floods while over 350,000 farmlands submerged.
The financial estimate, he said, covers food stuffs,
cash crops, animals, clothing and houses.
Whereas offical figures have not been given in Kano
state about seven local government areas were
affected, killing over 40 people with many still
missing, about 50 villages were submerged in the
floods, while properties worth hundreds of millions
of naira were also destroyed.
In the affected areas, schools and market sheds have
been converted to refugee camps while some victims
(mostly males took refuge on tree tops after they have
rescued women and childred to safety. Others in
mosques, local government secretariat and other public
buildings. By the time the flood had displaced the
people in about 10 local government areas of Kano
state with the severest as those of Wudil, Kura,
Dawakin Kudu, the renovated even new classroom blocks,
which the Governor of the state, Alhaji Rabiu
Kwankwaso spent the last two years of his
administration constructing to house hundreds of
thousands of school children, turned to emergency
refugee camps,while schools remian closed.
The victims are guartered in unhygienic refugee camps
with fear of possible outbreak of epidemics even as
releif materials continue to come in trickles. this
brings to fore the fact that ordinary Nigerians are
more or less abandoned to a disaster that is almost
sure to happen. The Nigerian government has no
measures put in place to handle recrudescent
emergencies and authorities of Dams are so
irresponsible in the discharge of their duties when
it comes to handling situations that can lead to loss
of lives and property.
The Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Ibrahim Turaki
said the disaster was an avoidable one. He said the
refusal of the management of the dams in
Hadejia/Jama?are River Basin Development Authority,
HJRBDA, to release water for farming (as the dams are
built for irrigation farming and source of potable
water) during the dry season caused the built-up that
had to be released.
According to Turaki, experts from the National
Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, who
were in Dutse (the Jigawa State capital) early this
year on ecological research, had warned against the
danger of not releasing water from the Tiga and
Challewa dams for dry season farming. Turaki pointed
out that even the Federal Ministry of Water Resources
which controls waterfrom the dams had written a letter
to him complaining that farmers in Jigawa were using
too much water from the dams to cultivate sugar cane
and subsequently stopped the free-flow of water from
the dams. This, he said, led to the overflow of the
dams and the calamity that has befallen the
communities.
But Shehu Abdulkadir, Managing Director,
Hadejia-Jama?are River Basin Development Authority
refuted the allegation. ?The allegation is unfounded.
It is not true. Dams are built to control flood and
not to trigger it off?, he said. He stated that the
flooding was caused by the heavy rainfall that had
been withnessed in the area this year. He explained
that any year it rains heavily and frequently, there
is the tendency that the dams could overflood their
banks and water will naturally spill to the
neighbouring communities. ?dams are meant to hold a
given capacity of water and there is no way you can
stop the spill, otherwise it will cause more damage.
As soon as the dam is filled beyond its capacity, it
will spill water and that is the only way of
protecting the dam and those living near it?, he said.
Abdulkadir was only being economical with the truth as
he later said that the management of the River Basin
Development Authority foresaw the flood disaster and
had written to the local government chairmen to alert
them. ?We told the people to be vigilant when we
noticed the trend. We issued our own information two
weeks before the flooding occurred? he said.
A trip to Tiga Dam revealed that there was still
visible effect of the flood with the swelling water in
the watercourses. The enbankment was still intact and
the volume of water was quite massive, holding 1.7
billion m3 of water, according to H. JRBDA?S Managing
Director. With the second, Challewa Gorge dam holding
as much as 930 million m3.
If there was a collapse of the dams, the whole city of
Kano and Dutse with a population of over 7 million
people and everything in the path of such flood, would
be swept away across three or four states within the
River Basin. ?There is no break or damage to any of
the dams but they were full to the capacity and at
this point excess water goes out through the spill way
to the surrounding rivers ? specifically Hadejia
River?, he said.
According to Abdulkadir, 86mm of rainfall in a single
day, in the month of August appeared an anormaly. At
least, in the state, in the past 5 ? 8 years is a far
cry from even half this exceptionally high figure.
As further meteorological reports became available to
H-RBDA boss, he made a public announcement on the
August 20, 2001 to say that two major dams under the
Authority ? Tiga and Challawa Gorge were full to
capacity and were already spilling. Therefore it
warned of an impending over flowing of the bank of
Rivers Kano and Hadejia.
The warning to some victims came too late before any
relocation could be arranged. In fact many did not
hear of the warning. It was not circulated to all
those prone to the disaster. Mallam Ibrahim MantuAdo
Isa one of the victims from Wudil Local Government
Area confirmed the leterness of the warning signal
from the authorities of H-JRBDA and the affected local
government councils did not help matters as affected
persons were not promptly communicated before the
disaster struck.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that massive
flooding is being experienced in that North-Central
part of the country. Flooding has, in fact become a
frequent occurrence in this torrid, desert-prone part
of Nigeria, occuring almost annually. In 1988, more
than 300,000 people were displaced by flood in Kano
State alone. In 1999, over 1000 persons were
displaced by flooding in Niger State where the three
large hydro-electric dams (Kainji, Shiroro and New
Bussa) are located. This year, about a million people
living in the down stream sector of these dams stand
the risk of being swept away by raging waters.
What probably is critical now is the rehabilitation of
the victims of this year?s flooding: the homeless, the
bereaved and the displaced. Massive injection of
relief material is needed. Already relief materials
are coming in from different governments agencies,
NGOs, Churches and other voluntry agencies. The
United States government has donated relief materials
worth $55,000 to the victims of the flood disaster in
Jigawa and Kano States. The relief materials are made
up of bags of rice, tins of tomatoes, groundnut oil,
among others. They were conveyed to the affected
communities by helicopters.
Ibrahim Turaki, Jigawa State Governor also listed Akwa
Ibom government, the Islamic Relief Organisation and
Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Chibudom
Nwuche as major donors. The disaster which claimed
three quarter of Jigawa State has led 17,000 civil
servants of the state to donate their six months
salaries to the victims, while permanent secretaries
have donated one month salaries. Good gestures as
they are, the relief received by victims remains a
drop in the ocean.
The question now is ? Are there resettlement policies
for dam affected people in Nigeria? The answer
appears to be blowing in the wind as even though there
are policies, these policies are not being
implemented. Only with the recent experience, the
Jigawa State Governor, Ibrahim Turaki is to forward a
bill to the state House of Assembly to declare Jigawa
a disaster area and has started construction work at a
resettlement centre. The centre is not likely to
accommodate all the affected people of the state.
Some of the people may not even want to be resettled
out of their ancestral home even though they were
chased away by flood, others are refusing resettlement
bacause of the infrequent nature of the flooding.
But the Africa Network for Environmental and Economic
Justice (ANEEJ) and other NGOs such as the Nigeria
Conservation Foundation (NCF) have continued to
campaign for proper Water Policies in Nigeria and
providing for resettlement for the affected people
down stream of dams. They attribute their views on
the fact that the people are acting in
ignorance.Already the people are demanding for
reparations for dams constructed and the agitation is
growing within the communities.
Already, ANEEJ is considering a number of projects
with the dam affected people to pull them away from
flood prone areas in line with its submission at the
Cairo, Egypt consultation on the World Commission on
Dams (WCD). The group accuses the Federal Government
of Nigeria of not being sensitive to the environmental
needs of the people just as it is strenthening its
campaign against the building of new dams in Nigeria.
The Federal Government early in the year announced its
desire to build seven new dams in the country. The
Minister of State for Water Resources, Chief Precious
Ngelale named some of the areas to benefit from the
project as Galma in Zaria, Kaduna State; Jarda in
Adamawa, Ossei in the South West and another location
in the South East of the country.
He said that findings had revealed that water would
never be sourced through the borehole method in some
parts of the country, citing the lower Benue Belt,
around Awgu in Enugu State and Ishan in Edo State.
Government, he said, is commiting #63 billion naria
into the projects. This has pitted ANEEJ with the
government as ANEEJ has continued to mount its
campaign against the construction of more dams in the
country, urging instead the use of other options to
provide water to the people. ANEEJ cited the flood
disaster as the reason for the campaign and the need
to maintain natural ecosystems.
With the Kano and Jigawa disasters, the livelihood of
the affected people stands threatened as famine is
likely to be amongst the people. Bello Kabir, one of
the victims in Jigawa State expressed fears of
imminent famine because hundreds of thousands of acres
of farmlands have been affected. According to him the
area has been known since time immemorial to be the
chief producer of food crops, ?but I am afraid with
this flood disaster which destroyed all our farmlands,
things may not be the same for a long time to come?
Other victims like Yakubu Bala and Ismail Dan
SadoHamza said that they lost about 50 farms and all
their houses to the floods. It is all a tale of woe
and despair, but will the government and people work
be able to employ the WCD guidelines on dams and water
management? This is a challenge for all stakeholders
in Nigeria.
NOTE;Local currency is naria, US$1 = 130 Naria
=====
Rev.David Ugolor
President
African Network for Environmental and Economic Justice(ANEEJ)
123 1st East Circular Road,Benin City,Edo State
Nigeria:Tel/Fax:234 52 258748:E-MAIL:aneej2000@yahoo.co.uk
--
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network <'})))>><
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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