Jigawa Flood: Death tolls hit 28 as governor highlights causes

The Governor of Jigawa State, Umar Namadi, said the death toll from floods caused by rainfall has risen to 28 in the state.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how 16 people were killed and more than 3000 displaced in flood disasters in 10 local government areas of the state.

The governor said on Tuesday that the death toll has risen to 28, most caused by the collapse of buildings, mostly mud houses, on people at night.

He said the flooding as of Tuesday affected 14 local government areas, about 40,000 people and over 80,000 households.

The governor stated this while hosting members of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Ecological Fund, led by its chairperson, Aminu Jaji, on a visit to the state to assess the impact of the environment.

The governor said over 7,000 houses were destroyed, and over 6,500 farmlands washed away in over 135 communities.

Mr Namadi warned that more devastation may be recorded as the dams in the state are silted, and the water from the Tiga Dam has not been released.

Road projects need environmental impact assessment – Governor

The governor said the state was not expecting flooding in August, but federal road projects’ blockage of water routes caused early flooding.

“As the chairman of the ecological fund you need to look at the impact of climate change on people and also the impact of government projects. There is a serious need for the federal government to ensure that for all federal road projects, there must be an environmental impact assessment before they can be undertaken.

“In the state road projects, we take care of the environmental impact assessment on the community that the road projects are being carried on. In some of the communities where environmental impact assessments have not been done, the communities have been submerged by water”, the governor said.

The governor gave an example of Kiyawa and parts of the Buji local government area that were affected by flooding before the Kano/Maiduguri highway reconstruction.

He said the flooding in the areas was because of the impact of the road project, noting that the road was raised, and the towns have gone down, blocking rainwater from going out.
“Environmental impact assessment for both the federal and state road projects is very necessary. Otherwise, people will continue to be in agony of flooding”, Mr Namadi said.

Earlier in his remarks, Mr Jaji said the visit was to look at the ecological challenges in the state, which he described as enormous and deserving of the federal government’s attention through the ecological office.

“The visit aimed to know some areas that would engage and benefit from this tour.

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“The tour is to select a few states among the 36 others in the federation that deserve to have a special intervention in the areas of ecological challenges to complement the effort of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his renewed hope agenda in addressing the issue of climate change and food security.

‘Jigawa state is located in the Sahel region, we looked at so many measures and indicators during our analysis and assessment that made us visit Jigawa to find ways to mitigate some of the challenges.

“One of the challenges we are facing ecologically is desertification and deforestation which is affecting all of the Sahel states. We aimed to have sustainable land management, which will bring innovations and ideas on addressing the ecological challenges.

“We intend to visit some areas within the state to see for ourselves. We had to promise to change from the normal ways of doing things to the right way of addressing issues.

“The normal ways of doing things at the ecological office are not encouraging; we want to address it correctly, right and timely. We are in Jigawa to make sure the state benefits from the resolution of the committee at the national level. Very soon, the people of Jigawa will see the impact of the visit”, Mr Jaji said.