NEC Orders Audit Of Nigeria’s Waterways, Dams

The National Economic Council (NEC) has directed the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation to commence a comprehensive integrity review of the state of Nigeria’s waterways and dams to mitigate the ravaging impact of flooding.

The governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja after Vice President Kashim Shettima presided over the NEC meeting yesterday.

He said that the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Professor Joseph Utsev, had briefed members of NEC on the federal government’s intervention activities across the country regarding the impact of this year’s flooding, which has become a major national disaster.

The Water Resources Ministry had earlier identified 148 local government areas in the country spanning 31 States as high flood risk areas for 2024 beginning from April to November.

According to Professor Soludo, after receiving the Minister’s presentation, NEC resolved that “the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation should conduct an integrity review of all the waterways and dams across the country.

“There was a severe emphasis on the need for a massive programme of dredging of the waterways. The council also urged Governors who have not submitted their reports on flooding and management in their States to do so immediately.

“Council also noted that the Green Climate Fund should have an infrastructure resilient fund component, and it was also noted that there some critical parts of the country that are very massively ravaged by this flooding, particularly the South East/South South that are completely omitted in the ongoing programs of the construction of dams at least to act as speed bumps along the highways particularly in the River Niger.”

Professor Soludo also said that the council considered the National Emergency, the responses to the damages, and the coordination between the States and the Federal Government and outlined further steps that should be taken.

“About 34 states have been affected, and 217 local governments, 1, 374, and 557 persons have already been affected. And 740 743 persons were displaced nationwide, and 321 persons died. 2,0845 were injured, and 250 800 cultivated farmlands were also destroyed and affected by the rapid flood,” the governor added.

It was gathered that Professor Utsev, during his presentation, informed the NEC that a technical subcommittee appointed by President Tinubu on 8th October 2024 is ongoing with its assignment and will be putting together an interim report to be presented to the Inter-Ministerial Committee for onward transmission to the President.