The managing director of the National Hydro-Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (N-HYPPADEC), Abubakar Yelwa, has disclosed that statistics from the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) show that in 2022 alone, about 18,349 houses and farmlands were destroyed by floods.
The managing director, who disclosed this during the inauguration and handover of the 1.2km Idye River Basin erosion control/hydraulic drainage project in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, lamented that the devastating floods also displaced over 134,797 persons.
According to him, the project is also supplemented by an additional excavation of 2.5 kilometers to salvage the lower basin of the community, and it is a significant investment of approximately N1.2bn.
He maintained that for years, residents of Makurdi and other parts of the state had endured annual flooding that had consumed thousands of homes and farmlands, displacing numerous families, the commissioning of the project marks a significant stride in our collective efforts to mitigate the devastating impact of flooding and erosion that have long plagued Makurdi communities.
He said successive governments at both federal and state levels had made frantic efforts to manage this crisis and mitigate its impact on the people and the environment, adding for example, that the federal government had spent about N700 million on the Idye Basin flood control project in Makurdi.
