Flood warnings in Nigeria over release of water from Cameroon dam

Authorities in Nigeria have warned of the potential for flooding in 11 states after neighbouring Cameroon said it would start regulated releases from its Lagdo dam following recent heavy rainfall in west and central Africa.

Umar Mohammed, the director-general of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NHSA), indicated that the discharges would be gradual “to avoid … triggering substantial flooding downstream in Nigeria” and that there was “no need for alarm”. Still, 11 Nigerian states from north to south lie along the Benue River’s flow trajectory and are expected to be affected to some degree.

“The water discharge is anticipated to progressively escalate to 1,000m³/s over the next seven days based on the inflow from the upstream Garoua River, which serves as the primary source into the reservoir and a significant tributary to the Benue River,” Mohammed said.

The Garoua River in Cameroon’s North region runs along the bank of the larger Benue River that flows through both countries. For years, the reservoir’s releases have been a source of headache for its larger neighbour. In 2022, releases led to the loss of more than 600 lives and an estimated $9bn (£6.8bn) in damages, according to the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics.

The NHSA said it had been notified by authorities in Cameroon on Tuesday that they had started controlled water releases from Lagdo dam. A spokesperson for Cameroon’s utility ENEO, which manages the dam, told Reuters the dam had not been opened as of Wednesday morning.

The flood alert comes a week after thousands in the north-eastern hub of Maiduguri were displaced by torrential rains after the collapse of a nearby dam which had been so neglected for years that cracks had begun to appear on its walls.

The incident, which caused a bridge to collapse and drowned some wild animals including reptiles and lions, let others loose into the metropolis and also facilitated the escape of more than 200 inmates from the city prison. The official death toll is 38 but some residents say the true figure exceeds that.

One of the three nutrition centres run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) was cut off by the flood. Twenty-six children were evacuated from it, said Babatunde Ojei, its country director in Nigeria, on Wednesday.

“May Allah help us stop the tragedy; the situation that we find ourselves in, the environmental problem and climate change,” News Agency of Nigeria quoted President Bola Tinubu as saying during a visit on Monday, days after his deputy led a federal delegation to Maiduguri.

Nigeria’s hydrological agency first gave notice of a national disaster during the launch of the 2024 Annual Flood Outlook in April, forecasting floods in as many as 29 of Nigeria’s 36 states. Aid workers say 1.3m hectares (3.2m acres) of land nationwide has already been submerged as of 10 September. About half of that was cropland.

Across the country, the impact of climate change continues to compound the woes of some of its most vulnerable households. Rural poverty is widespread, as is malnutrition in a region with multiple, sometimes concurrent, conflicts.

Extreme rainfall is more common and more intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, particularly in Europe, most of Asia, central and eastern North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Australia. This is because warmer air can hold more water vapour. Flooding has most likely become more frequent and severe in these locations as a result, but is also affected by human factors, such as the existence of flood defences and land use.

In Maiduguri, the birthplace of the Boko Haram insurgency that has decimated villages since 2009 when its founder was killed extrajudicially, the floods have brought a new dimension of helplessness for local people.

“I never pray for even my enemy to experience such a thing,” Aisha Aliyu, a resident of Maiduguri, told AFP last week. She is temporarily staying at one of the eight camps opened to take in survivors.

In Gubio, another camp, an unknown number of suspected cholera cases have been reported, said Ojei. If confirmed, a cholera outbreak would put many children “at extreme risk … due to existing vulnerabilities such as diarrhoea and malaria,” he added.