President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday announced the decision of the Federal Government to approve the building of more dams on the Upper Niger and Benue to avert re-occurrence of the flood disastersin some states of the federation.
President Goodluck Jonathan , who made this known in Yenagoa yesterday after a tour of flood disaster relief camps and flooded communities, said that the decisionwas based on studies conducted on flood disasters in the country insisting that the last time the people of the Niger Delta, especially Bayelsa State, experienced this magnitude of flood was in 1969.
President Jonathan said, "with the 1969 flood experience at the back of my mind, I noticed that the outlet of the water resulting into flood was from River Niger but with the construction of Shiroro and Kainji dams then, the outflow of water drastically reduced".
"Also, during my visit to flood victims in Kogi State, the Governor told me that the bulk of the water came in from River Benue and as a way of reducing the flooding, government is planning is to build more dams in Benue section", he added.
"Presently, the Federal Government is building Kashambila Dam and it will be completed in 2014. My commitment is to fast track it and by the time government builds two or three dams in the Benue section, it will reduce the level of water because dams have the primary responsibility of holding water", Jonathan said.
Describing the flooding as a global phenomenon, President Jonathan who said the nation was worst hit, added that havingflown over some states, he discovered that some clans are presently under water whilefarmlands and fish ponds have been washed away with property worth billions of naira destroyed.
"Flood as you know more than me is a global thing. It affects the whole World; Europe, Asia. It is not unique to Nigeria but quite devastating in Nigeria. The middle Niger, that is the northern part of the country to the coastal communities are badly affected.
"What I promise Nigerians is that government is working hard to see that people are rehabilitated. We are working with the respective state governments at ensuring that people are rehabilitated and live in a decent environment immediately water goes down.
"It is an emergency situation and the Federal Government is looking at various options aimed at ameliorating the sufferingof the people in the area of plants that will mature in short distance time like 60 days", the president disclosed.
Earlier in his address, the Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson commendedthe efforts of the President and various government agencies at bringing succour to the people of the state, describing the effects of the flooding as devastating.
Good development if that would stem the tide of flooding in the future.