Flood-ravaged communities sue NEPA, Niger State

Communities in northwest Nigeria have filed a lawsuit against the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) and the Niger State government for opening sluice gates on two dams that submerged hundreds of villages, ‘The Guardian’ newspaper in Lagos reported on Thursday. Different sources have estimated the death toll at anywhere between 15 and hundreds. Tens of thousands of people have reportedly been forced to flee to higher ground. The 33 communities sued NEPA and the state for 1.5 billion naira (US $15.77 million), according to ‘The Guardian’. They are asking for special and general damages from NEPA and for the state government to provide immediate temporary shelter. They claim that under the terms of a land acquisition act, NEPA was legally bound to compensate them for loss of their land, the newspaper said. The villages were submerged when NEPA opened sluice gates on its Jabba and Kainji dams on the River Niger to ease the pressure on them. The flooding has affected a heavily populated area between the Niger River basin and the Kaduna River. The newspaper quoted officials of Niger and Kwara states as saying on Wednesday that the affected area stretched at least 200 km along the Niger River and 40 km on either side of it. A news source told IRIN on Thursday that there was also severe flooding 40 km downstream of the Shiroro Dam near Minna, capital of Niger state. “The flooding is a catastrophe,” Niger State spokesman Shiabu Mohammed said. “There are hundreds of villages under water, fields of crops under water. People have lost their homes. People have lost their livelihoods.”