- The Federal Ministry of Water Resources plans to construct additional dams in Nigeria to address recurring flooding issues and improve water management
- Director Ali Dallah emphasized that building more dams is essential for preventing downstream floods, as Nigeria currently lacks sufficient dam infrastructure
The Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation has announced plans to construct additional dams across Nigeria to tackle the country’s recurring flooding issues. The Director of Dams and Reservoir Operations, Ali Dallah, disclosed this during an assessment visit to the Mangu Dam in Gindri, Plateau State.
Dallah, who also leads the Technical Sub-Committee on Dam Evaluation, explained that Nigeria’s frequent flooding is largely due to the insufficient number of dams. He noted that building more dams is essential for containing water and preventing downstream floods.
“Flooding in Nigeria is primarily due to the lack of enough dams, which are crucial for containing water and preventing downstream flooding. To have a reliable and sustainable solution to flooding, we need more functional dams,” he said.
Dallah compared Nigeria’s 408 registered dams to countries like the United States, which has 92,000 functional dams, and China, which has 98,000. He also mentioned that the government has already identified suitable locations for new dams and completed feasibility studies.
In response to recent flooding incidents, such as the one in Maiduguri, the federal government formed the committee to assess the condition of dams across the country. Dallah assured that the Mangu Dam project, currently under construction, is progressing well and is expected to be completed by March 2025.
He emphasized the need to evaluate the health of existing dams to prevent collapses, adding that some dams require repairs due to aging. Meanwhile, the Mangu Dam, with a capacity of 18 million cubic meters, was praised for its quality, according to Uka Kanno, the project consultant.