Communities face annual flooding

People living alongside the Kaduna River face the threat of floods every year unless they are relocated before the construction of a hydroelectric dam in Zungeru, northern Niger State, ‘ThisDay’ newspaper reported the assistant general manager of the National Electric Power Authority as saying. Abdullateef Raji told members of the House of Representatives’ committees on Power, Judiciary and Environment that investigations should be conducted into the dangers associated with such dams. The politicians were on a fact-finding tour of areas devastated by floods as a result of their proximity to Nigeria’s three dams, the daily reported. Most communities downstream of Zungeru, some 50 km northwest of the state capital, Minna, that are not yet affected by floods are likely to be submerged after the construction of the proposed fourth power station, Raji warned. The only way to avoid this, he said, is to relocate communities. He also advised that the station should not be limited to the generation of energy but should also serve irrigation and fish-farming purposes.