‘Dams responsible for flood’

Kwara State is one of the states severely affected by the 2012 flood. How prepared is the state to tackle the 2013 flood prediction?You see, there are five local governments affected in 2012. These include a very narrow portion of Ifelodun Local Government making six now. Majority of the people that were affected in those […]

Kwara State is one of the states severely affected by the 2012 flood. How prepared is the state to tackle the 2013 flood prediction?
You see, there are five local governments affected in 2012. These include a very narrow portion of Ifelodun Local Government making six now. Majority of the people that were affected in those local government areas are Edu and Patigi with a little portion of Kaiama, a portion of Moro, Ifelodun and then Ilorin South because of the Asa River.
All the local government areas that border River Niger were the areas that were seriously going to be affected. Already, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the meteorological agency have done their forecast that there would be heavy rainfall this year and we have also seen it that there is an increase in rainfall from the period the rain started. If you go to my local government now in Patigi, you would see many people are already drying their melon which is early enough and we thank God for what he has done for us in that area. At the same time it is a warning to those of us that are very close.
God willing the governor appointed me the chairman of Flood Relief and Rehabilitation Committee. I also come from that area. Almost every weekend I go home and I try to discuss with my people and try to advise those by the riverside.
Last week we had a lot of discussions with the people by the riverside that they should be preparing to move because already the Federal Ministry of Water Resources had given us warning that Kainji Dam and Jebba Dam will soon be opened and excess water would be released. About a month ago, we went to Jebba, Kainji and New Bussa and we met with the authorities and told them to assist us by not releasing water at once but gradually.
You know when it is gradual, it would now be giving warning to the people downstream. But when you open at once, it is then you see danger. When it is gradual people will now be moving.
Meanwhile, we have prepared location in Patigi, Edu that are very sensitive and you have many people. We have identified some schools that we can make use of the halls in accommodating those that will be displaced. This may not necessarily tamper with classrooms except where we are using primary schools that don’t have halls.
In Patigi and Lafiagi, Shonga/Tsaragi, there are other places identified too that once you have that kind of flood that people would now relocate to. All these we have been telling people where they would relocate to.
We have been using radio which covers all the local governments mentioned to sensitize people so that they would be aware that they should now move away from the flood prone to safe area. At least they should go away with their property so that water will not destroy their property that would be useful in future.

Apart from the sensitization and enlightenment, what are other efforts that the government is making and what is the cost implication of these efforts aimed at forestalling the recurrence of last year’s flood?
The efforts are in four levels. One, the federal government because I have had opportunity of going to Abuja twice. The federal government intends building prototype-houses. If we identify places, we now go and start maybe we put two, three houses. You know the tradition by the riverside, once the village head moves, the rest of the people would be moving.
So the number of houses to be built in that case, we are targeting the traditional heads. Once they move, then others would be moving. If they don’t move their children would move and if their children move, it would even be better for the future.
So, that is the level of the federal government’s involvement. They have promised us that they would build about five houses in each location. You know definitely it is not enough. Let’s call a spade a spade, because if you go to a village, you would see about 30 to 50 displaced people and then you want to build only two, three, four, five houses, you know what it means.
On the level of the Kwara State government’s preparedness, we have already pledged to build schools and we will abide by it. We will be building hospitals. All public facilities would be made available in such locations that we have identified and given to the federal government. Since we identified them, we are already making a budget this year that by the special grace of God, we would make those things available as from next year to the locations.
At the same time we are prepared to give relief materials and NEMA has also promised us that they would support us with tents in those locations. We have given them the cost and they have their own cost. If they want to do it for us, fine. If they want us to do it, fine. But we have met with them, we have done everything.
The second issue brought by NEMA was that they told us they need 10 people from each local government for training. This group of people would be trained in disaster management in case it actually comes and it is affecting the people, how they will rescue them? So that programme is already on, we have finished our plan for it.

How many camps altogether have you created?
What we have done is that we identified about 10 camps in Patigi and Edu because these are the most affected local governments. In Moro, we have one camp, in Baruten we have one. And you know I told you Ifelodun is also affected. So, we are trying to create another camp in that area and we also have camp in Ilorin South.

What level of cooperation is government getting from the flood affected communities?
They are even praying for us, meaning that they appreciate all the things the government is doing. So, they are very much cooperative because anytime we go to Patigi, Lafiagi, Shonga, and we make announcement that we are coming tomorrow, you will see a lot of them waiting for us.

What are the challenges faced in relocating these flood affected people?
You see, the biggest challenge is in financing. Those by the River Niger were there before the incidents of flood. Flood was not affecting people like what happened last year and they were living by the riverside because it is the mainstay of the people of that area. The problem really started when dams were created around the river, that’s Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro dams.
The three dams are the genesis of flood in Kwara State. Immediately the dams were created the river went down and people now started encroaching and water icing continues to crop up. What the federal government should have done if not because of financial challenge is to dredge. If you dredge River Niger from Lokoja to Jebba you have succeeded in creating waterway transport. But once they extend it to Jebba, you know the water would now flow its channel and all this water icing would be cleared up, then there would be no problem again. That will be more or less a permanent solution to the problem and then people would not be prevented from practicing their economic activities; that’s going to riverside to go and fish or farm. Once the dredging is done, the water will be on its course. It is because we have disturbed the course of the river that the river is now overflowing its boundaries.

When are you relocating those to be affected?
We cannot give specific time. Even when we went for a meeting at federal level, all the states to be affected, about 27 states, we met and discussed. And we asked that question; at what specific time should our people relocate? It is indefinite; you cannot say this is the time. If you say, “water is coming tomorrow”. What if it refuses to come. And there was a year they told everybody to move away from the riverside but there was no flood that year.
So we don’t want to be emphatic on the time that we should move. When both Kainji and Jebba, including Shiroro dams are releasing their water gradually, people would now sense that danger is coming. When water starts coming gradually, today it is 5 kilometers away, tomorrow it is 3 kilometers away, next tomorrow, it is now 2 kilometers away, they will then be forced to move away. That’s the way the calculation should be.
You know the dams too must be allowed to release, or they would entirely collapse and that’s what they don’t want.
There was the insinuation that the money the state got from the federal government was not judiciously utilized. Can you shed more light on how the N300 million was expended?
Not in Kwara State. We got N300 million for relief and rehabilitation from the federal government. So when they said relief, what we did was to buy food items, we bought building materials and we also bought what will keep the people going. Because there is no amount of money you would give them that would not finish.
So, what do I mean by what will keep the people going? Majority of our people are farmers and fishermen. So in the course of our purchasing materials that would keep them going, that would give them relief as the federal government directed, we bought nails, we bought guinea corn, we bought rice, a lot of food items and distributed to the people. We bought zinc; cement and some other building materials.