Oftentimes, most states in the country are usually taken unawares by the disasters posed by flooding each year such that it has become an annual calamitous ritual that the government at all levels face. In this piece, SUNNY IDACHABA writes on the need to overhaul the entire water structure to avoid the persistent flooding caused by dams’ collapse.
For years, flooding has caused untold damage both to lives and property in many parts of the country. The unfortunate occurrences either happen through natural factor such as rainfall or human errors resulting from improper management of water reservoirs otherwise known as dams.
It is important to note that whenever flooding occurs in any part of the country, it affects many sectors of the economy. Asides the negatively redesigning lifestyles, the environment and zoological garden where animals, including the wild ones are kept are thrown to the wiles of the flood. This is why there is a dire need to revive existing dams scattered all over the country.
To that extent, the announcement by the federal government through the Ministry of Water Resources that among the existing dams in the country, it was reviving three to the tune of N4.4 billion appears a move in the right direction. However, since there are well over 10 ageing dams scattered across the country, reviving only three is like a drop of tea in an ocean
The three dam projects in question, according to investigation are the Farin Ruwa Multipurpose Dam in Nasarawa state, Ogbese Multipurpose Dam in Ekiti state and Mangu Dam in Plateau state.
The Nasarawa state government, for instance, initiated the Farin Ruwa Dam project in 2003, with the aim of generating 20 megawatts of electricity and stimulating economic development in the northern region, but soon after it was initiated, it was abandoned due to funding-related constraints.
However, in 2021, former Minister of Water Resources, Malam Suleiman Adamu, said the federal government had taken over the project with a pledge to complete it within 24 months, still it remained incomplete until May 2024, when the current Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Professor Joseph Utsev, stated that the government had included the dam project in the 2024 budget with construction ongoing.
The Ogbese Multipurpose Dam project was initiated in 2009 to provide hydro-electric power to the tune of about four megawatts, irrigation and domestic water supply for over 450,000 people in Ekiti state, but had consistently suffered from neglect. Available data indicates that in 2024, the Ministry of Water Resources paid N1, 309,634,551 for reconstruction work on the dam.
Also, the Mangu Dam project, launched in 2002 by the federal government, was to provide potable water, support irrigation and potentially generate electricity and was initially scheduled for completion in 2017, but 22 years later, it remained uncompleted for inexplicable reasons.
History of dam failures
The most recent incident of dam failure was the Alau Dam collapse that occurred in Maiduguri in September 2024. Investigations showed that the dam, located 20 kilometres outside Maiduguri, was constructed by the administration of former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, in 1986 for irrigation purposes, flood control and water supply but had been notorious for frequent collapses. It first collapsed in September 1994 and displaced more than 4,000 people with property destroyed. The reason for this is largely lack of maintenance.
Apart from the Alau Dam, available documents and records showed that other dams, such as Bagauda Dam in Kano state, had equally a number of times failed due to similar factors that triggered the collapse of Alau Dam, even though those failures did not cause collateral damage like what happened with Alau Dam recently.
Bagauda Dam was, according to investigation, constructed in 1969 as a zoned earth filled dam through direct labour basically for Kadawa irrigation site and to provide water to Kano metropolis and surrounding villages.
However, in 1988, it collapsed after two days of intense rainfall. The embankment was said to have collapsed after it received an excess of about 10 cubic litres of water to the already filled reservoir.
In the same way, Cham Dam located in the present Gombe state failed in1998 after continuous rainfalls. The incident not only overflowed the embankment, but overflowed the gate spillway.
Goronyo Dam in Sokoto state constructed in 1983 by Shehu Shagari’s administration had failed twice. The first was in 1984 while the second time it failed was in 2018.
Another dam located in Kaduna state, Bagoma Dam, is not different as it had failed in 1994 due to what engineers called ‘piping’ through its foundation. As a result, its treatment and power houses were flooded; so also were the access roads to the surrounding communities.
The Obudu Dam in Cross River state had also collapsed in 2003 following 16 hours of continuous rainfall which over-filled the reservoir. With the spillover structurally inadequate to accommodate the excessive water, the channel was completely eroded.
Also was the homogenous earth dam with reservoir capacity of 30 million cubic litres of water Waya Dam located in Bauchi state which had also failed in 1997 causing collateral damage to lives and property.
Possible causes
In many cases, the government’s alleged mismanagement of dams is a major cause of flooding in Nigeria, but aside from that is pride on the part of political leaders.
Another major challenge in Nigeria is policy discontinuity by successive governments resulting in the accumulation of abandoned projects in all spheres of national development comprising dams, power houses, water supply and irrigation, steel industry and roads. This is according to a hydrological engineer, Suleiman Ado.
He said, “The reasons we talk about ageing infrastructure is because successive regimes do not have a sense of continuity on projects initiated by their predecessors, but would embark on new projects leading to abandonments everywhere. They forget that on every abandoned site is public fund being put to waste.
“It appears that it is yet to be appreciated that government is continuity, whether it is the green or red party that is in control and all projects initiated by the previous administration have to be completed by succeeding administrations.”
Explanations
While explaining why dams empty their massive water content to the streets so often, the water resources minister Utsev noted that most times dams do not collapse but struggle to handle the excess water from nearby tributaries thereby causing overflow into surrounding areas.
He said, “Government officials have confirmed that climate change has intensified rainfall leading to excess water that many dams are struggling to manage and as temperature rises, we expect increased rainfall, leading to higher water volumes in our rivers and channels.”
He, however, announced measures to prevent a recurrence of frequent flood disasters arising from dams collapse, saying,
“Proactive measures are crucial to preventing future escalations; long term solutions are under way with budgetary allocation in 2024/ 2025 specifically targeting dams rehabilitations.”
Experts’ counsel
Since dams collapses are due mainly to overtopping caused by flooding, structural failure of materials used in construction, experts suggest that dam operators should perform routine maintenance to avoid frequent collapse being noted in the dams as it is noted with power/energy in recent times.
Also, Ado is of the view that managing reservoirs for flood control requires keeping the maximum possible empty space before the flood season.
“Water storage is required for the remaining objectives of water supply, irrigation and hydropower. In the Nigerian situation, hydropower generation dominates the functions of many large dams. This means that the management of reservoirs would focus on keeping the level at full pool,” he said.
Dams are constructed for the benefits of humanity, if well managed. Flooding resulting from dams’ failures are essentially human errors than can be avoided. This is why the government must go beyond reviving only three ageing dams, but should do a general overhaul of all dams and water reservoirs in the country.
