The Minister of Water Resources Engr Suleiman Adamu has said Nigeria never signed any agreement with Cameroon to build the Datsin Hausa Dam in Adamawa State to stop water from the release of Lagdo Dam.
The Minister said the main cause of the flooding this year were the tributaries of the Rivers Benue and Niger as well as the unprecedented rains.
He also said deforestation over a long period was also a contributing factor to the flooding problem.
He spoke when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Water Resources headed by Senator Bello Mandiya to defend the 2022 budget performance and the 2023 budget proposal of the Ministry.
He was responding to a query by the Committee on why the dam project, supposed to be located in Adamawa State, was abandoned
The Committee was worried that this has greatly contributed to the flooding problem witnessed in various parts of the country today.
But the Minister said water from the Lagdo dam contributes just one percent to the flooding issues in the country.
He said he discontinued plans to build the Datsin Hausa dam project in 2016 because of its poor feasibility study and engineering design.
He said the Ministry was working to get funding for a master plan of the Rivers Benue and Niger to sustainably check the country’s flooding problem.
According to him: “There are so many stories circulating in the media and so on that Nigeria entered into an agreement with Cameroon to build a dam at Datsin Hausa. I have checked the records of the Ministry, there has never been anything like that. Datsin Hausa along with Kashimbila and the entire tributaries of River Benue have not been dammed and that is why River Benue constitutes the major source of flood from the confluence downwards.
“Datsin Hausa is on River Benue but it is not related to the release of Lagdo. The contribution of Lagdo Dam to flood in Nigeria is one percent. It is not the main reason we have flooding. The transboundary waters that come into this country from Rivers Niger and Benue constitute 20 percent of freshwater that flows into the country. 80 percent of the flood in this country is water that we are blessed with from God from the sky.
“So most of the floods are from the country. The issue of Datsin Hausa is a dam that is identified under the national water resources masterplan to be one the dams that can be a check to reduce flooding. Yes it has not been built. When I came into office, I was informed about it. I found out that some preliminary work had been done to initiate the process of construction after Kashimbila”.
