By Obiabin Onukwugha
A civil society organisations, Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has stated that the collapse of the Alau Dam in Borno State is an indication of failure on the part of government at the federal and state levels and its relevant agencies.
Hundreds of persons, including animals from the state’s zoo and prisoners have been displaced in Maidiguri, the Borno State capital,, after the dam collapsed on Tuesday owing to intense rain fall in the last one week.
Communities including Fori, Galtimari, Gwange, Bulabulin, are among those displaced by the flood waters, with children, amd women who newly gave birth to children, mostly affected.
Reacting to the incident, RDI in a statement issued in Lagos by its Executive Director, Phillip Jakpor, said 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).
In the aftermath of the incident thousands of homes have been submerged, including the palace of the Shehu of Borno and government facilities in 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 body regretted that no concrete preemptively actions or flood management plan was put in place to safeguard life and property despite the earlier predictions and warnings.
It also condemned the failure of relevant authorities to take proactive measures, emphasising that a dam does not just collapse in a day without notice.
“Maiduguri may just be the starting point. We had warned severally that the lack lustre 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.
“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 statement resd in part.
The body 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.
It urged other states of the federation to take a cue from the incident and take proactive measures to avoid similar happening, noting that in the Niger Delta region for instance monster floods are predicted to happen.
“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”.
“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”, the statement added.