The South East, South West and North Central States have been warned to brace up for more floods by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA).
Benue, Anambra have been hard hit with houses submerged while over 80 persons have lost their lives in the floods along the River Niger.
Nimet director-general Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, and his NIHSA counterpart, Mr Clement Nze, who were speaking at the opening ceremony of the workshop on Hydro-meteorological status and outlook system (HydroSOS), said in the coming days heavy rains, coupled with flood waters from dams being opened win compound the problems on ground.
“Remember, we issued the forecast in February and we followed up with the monthly updates that we’re going to have above-normal rainfall in most parts of the country.
“So in terms of the rainfall induced floods, we’ve seen the peak but remember we told you that this rainwater gets collected into the reservoirs and dams, and whenever they are filled, it gets spilled. So, on the13th of September, the Lagbo Dam was released. And also Kainji and Shiroro dams were also released. So what we’re witnessing now is riverine flooding” Prof. Matazu explained.
“And from the information we’re getting from NIHSA we’re going to see more floods. And now the rain is concentrating on the North Central and the southern states. So that will be a combination of short duration, high intensity rain, and riverine flooding.
“So we’re going to see more of these floods in the north central states as we are seeing in Kogi and also south eastern and southwestern states as we are beginning to see in a number of parts of the South West.”
