Bisola David
Environmentalists have demanded that the River Benue be dug up to prevent more flooding.
According to The Punch,a professor of water resources and environmental engineering in the department of civil engineering at Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University in Makurdi, Joseph Utsev, stated that flooding has turned into an annual catastrophe.
He added that it cost the country an estimated $9.12 billion, or almost N4.2 trillion, last year.
“For instance, the badly silted River Benue is the only factor contributing to the country’s flooding. If awarded the position of minister of water resources, I will work with the ministries of transportation, agriculture, and other departments to see how we can combat the threat of floods by attempting to dredge the rivers.
“Dredging the river will solve the problem because it will reduce the threat of flooding and provide water for irrigation.”
Additionally, the National Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Environmental Engineers, Sesan Odukoya, encouraged the Federal Government to safeguard the coastlines, dredge the Niger and Benue Rivers, and build some dams along the corridor.
He encouraged the installation of building protection barriers, drainage, and other measures to stop a repeat of the disastrous floods that wreaked havoc in many areas of the country last year.
The Federal and State Governments should restrict the construction of infrastructure near flood plains, he argued, in order to deter people from buying land and relocating there.
“Additionally, the Federal and State Governments should take steps to deter individuals from constructing on flood plains and employ engineering solutions to prevent flooding in previously developed regions.
“The government might build barrier walls to re-channel water from developed areas along flood plains through sizable drains to the larger lake bodies. There are supposed to be some dams in the corridor of the Rivers Niger and Benue, so the Federal Government needs to go back and put those reports that we gave them into action.”
