Paul Aidoghie and Okwe Obi, Abuja
Nigerians, especially those in the southern states, have been warned to brace up for flood incidents due to high rainfall intensity of long duration.
Mr. Clement Nze, Director General of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) gave the warning in Abuja, yesterday, when he updated newsmen on 2019 flood early warning information.
He said relevant stakeholders, especially individuals and state governments have failed to heed the warning issued before the onset of flooding season across the country.
“Going by the prediction by Nigerian Meteorological Agency’s (NiMet), during the 2019 seasonal rainfall prediction, which they said there will be late onset of rainy season in Nigeria this year and early cessation.
“In orders words, rainfall will start very late and will end early, it is expected that by 26 of this month, rainfall will cease in Katsina and Sokoto and begin to move down to the south.
“But in the southern parts of Nigeria rainfall will still continue to fall up till November and even December in places like Bayelsa, Rivers even Delta will be experiencing rainfall up to late November.”
He said the agency was concerned about the non-adherence to flood predictions for 2019, thereby resulting in avoidable flooding incidents, leading to loss of lives, property, disruption of economic activities and loss of several hectares of agricultural lands.
Nze said that as at Sept. 16, the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon is still impounding water, adding that it was not yet certain if there would be release of water from the dam in 2019.
He said that river Benue was rising steadily, due to local rainfall with attendant heavy inflows from the tributaries of the river.
He explained that the steady rising would likely cause river flooding in Adamawa, Taraba and Benue states.State so far affected are Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kwara Adamawa, Benue, Bauchi, Gombe, Plateau, Taraba, Yobe, Kogi, Nasarawa, Anambra, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Abia, Cross River, Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Ekiti and Oyo, including FCT.
Meanwhile, houses in highbrow Aso Villa, Abuja, including the home of the Senate Chief Whip, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, were submerged following downpour, yesterday.
Flood, according to eye witnesses, took over the parking lot in the residence of the former governor of Abia State.
One of his vehicles, a Mercedes Benz Jeep, was swallowed by over four and half feet flood.
Speaking with Daily Sun, Kalu said he had been living in the residence since 1997, disclosing that the flood had become a recurring decimal.
Kalu also said anytime there was downpour, he had to make use of pumping machines to remedy the situation.
He three past ministers of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had been to his residence to observe the result of the flood, but did nothing about the situation.
““It is only the new minister that I have not called his attention to it. It is not new. Past ministers have come, but whenever it happened, no one was here. This is the first time I am witnessing it live. And it is life-threatening because we have lost a lot of our properties here; cars damaged, they can’t start again, they were taken over by the swamp,” Kalu said.
“I was here when it was raining. I was with some visitors and later on, my people were shouting that oh, people were going to die. I came out to look at it. We put on all the pumping machines to drain the water to the empty land. Luckily, the rain has stopped,” Kalu said.