Benue taking measures to tackle flooding – Commissioner

Benue State Commissioner for Water Resources, Environment and Climate Change, Odoh Ugwu, has said that the state government has embarked on a series of measures to avert possible flooding in the state.

Ugwu stated this on Tuesday while speaking with newsmen in Makurdi.

According to him, the state government is on a daily basis reading the water level in order to know when to evacuate people living in flood-prone areas to a safe place.

The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency had issued a seven-day flood advisory to some states, including Benue, warning of a medium flood risk. The agency said the alert followed rising water levels at key river monitoring stations, increasing the likelihood of localised flooding along river channels and floodplains.

The Commissioner said that the state government had continually prepared for the rainy season and had made available all the equipment for water reading.

According to the Commissioner, the state government, aside from creating awareness, had also desilted the drainages for free flow of water.

According to him, “At the beginning of every year, we prepare for the rainy season and we start by ensuring that all the equipment we need in terms of water level reading and all that are intact, because we use it to know where the water level, where we are, to know when we are approaching the danger level and where we need to take action and all that.

“Another thing was to create awareness during the rainy season by informing people living around the riverine area to move from the low level to a higher ground where they will be safe pending when they will have a normal level of water within their areas.”

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The Commissioner added that the ongoing road construction in the capital city has really helped to control flooding.

He further said, “Here in Makurdi before now, you will be hearing of the issue of flooding in Makurdi, particularly, Achusa area and other environs but because of the rapid road construction that is going on, we will have less of that this year because most of these roads come with well-planned drainages that take care of most of these issues that we are talking about.”

Ugwu, however, appealed to the people of the state not to dump refuse or waste in the waterways, and added that the ministry, in conjunction with urban development, is working to bring down and remove all those houses that are sitting on the waterways.