By Edu Abade
A group of environmental activists and climate crusaders, the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has linked the collapse of the Alau Dam in Borno and flooding of farmlands and hundreds of homes in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital to a total disconnect among the coordinating emergency response agencies of government at federal and state levels.
In a statement issued in Lagos, the group said the reported collapse of the dam on Tuesday, September 10, 2024 and inundation of 70 percent of Maiduguri amounted to a monumental failure on the part of government. The flooding of the communities was said to have begun about a week ago but reached its peak in the early hours of Tuesday, displacing residents of Fori, Galtimari, Gwange, Bulabulin and other communities.
Following the incident, thousands of homes have been submerged, including the palace of the Shehu of Borno and government facilities in Maiduguri, the capital. There has also been a jail break and escape of animals in the Museum Park, further endangering hapless residents. Reports indicate that 80 per cent of animals at the Sanda Kyarimi Park zoo died as a result of the incident.
The RDI maintained that the collapse of the dam was completely avoidable, adding that the incident represents failure in governance at all levels since the floods had hitherto been predicted by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), yet no concrete preemptively actions or flood management plan was put in place to safeguard life and property.
Reacting to the development, Executive Director of RDI, Philip Jakpor said: “Maiduguri may just be the starting point. We had warned severally that the lackluster approach of the federal and the state governments that have collected about N40 billion in Ecological Funds this year alone to addressing perennial floods would lead to avoidable catastrophic incidents like this.
“Perhaps the attention that has attended this case is only because Maiduguri, the state capital, is involved. If it had been in the remote communities there would be less alarm. This is completely damning for the government”
Jakpor, who maintained that a dam does not just collapse in a day without notice, also noted: “With the intense rains a proactive management would have known that waters must be released gradually from the dam to avoid a breach. But in this case, the waters had reached the crescendo before the management of the dam raised the alarm.”
The RDI boss pointed out that someone or some people must be held to account for the failure in acting to prevent the collapse of the dam and the monumental losses that the state has recorded and would incur in the days ahead.
He pointed out that Nigerians are yet to see effective and proactive coordination between the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and their state counterparts in response to flooding incidents.
“Unfortunately what we only read is how the emergency management agencies’ struggle to share palliatives when such disasters would have been prevented in the first place,” he said.
He urged other states of the federation to learn from the incident and take proactive measures to avoid similar happening, going further to alert that noting that in the Niger Delta region for instance monster floods are predicted to happen.
“The Alau Dam collapse is a tragedy that could have been avoided. Until we take preemptive measures to address the fallouts of climate change we will only continue suffering economic losses and needless loss of lives,” Jakpor added.
