Flooding imminent as rivers Niger, Benue rise

The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency declared on Monday that many states in the southern part of the country, will witness more floods following the rise in the water levels of Nigeria’s two major rivers – River Niger and River Benue.

NIHSA is the Federal Government’s agency that has the mandate of monitoring all the major rivers in Nigeria including the trans-boundary rivers Niger and Benue, among other functions.

The agency stated that latest information it received on September 6, 2019, from the headquarters of the Niger Basin Authority in Niamey, Niger Republic, confirmed steady rise into the Red Alert Zone up to 6.26 metres of the flood level of River Niger monitored in Niamey.

The Director-General, NIHSA, Clement Nze, explained that flood alerts were graded as Yellow Alert, 5.5m to 5.8m; Orange Alert, 5.8m to 6.2m; and Red Alert, 6.2m and above.

According to him, Nigeria is precariously located downstream of eight other countries that make up the Niger Basin, namely, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Benin Republic, Chad and Cameroon.

He said inflows of flood from these countries usually arrive Nigeria anytime late August and early September of every year.

“This is what often causes river flooding in Nigeria,” Nze stated.

Nze said, “This development was promptly communicated to Mr President through the Minister of Water Resources. The flood sighted in Niger Republic was expected to get to the Nigerian border through Kebbi State around 16th of September, 2019, and it would finally find its way down to Kwara, Niger, Kogi, Edo, Anambra, Rivers and Bayelsa states.

He outlined states so far affected by various degrees of flooding to include Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kwara, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Plateau, Taraba, and Yobe.

Others are Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, Anambra, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Abia, Cross River, Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Ekiti and the Federal Capital Territory.