The Nigerian Federal Government had on Friday, said that the flood in Maiduguri, Borno State was caused by overflow of the Ngadda River, and not the collapse of the Alau Dam as previously believed.
While making this revelation during a press briefing in Abuja, the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Engineer Joseph Utsev, announced that the Alau Dam was intact.
Several people have been reported dead with properties worth billions of Naira wrecked by the devastating flood in Maiduguri.
However, while giving insight into the flood, the minister said that the government never thought that the water levels would increase to the levels it did this year, blaming climate change for the heavy downpour.
In his words: “So, more water than was unexpected spilled into Alau Dam, and spilled over the dyke.
“Alau Dam did not collapse. It was one of the dykes that could not hold excess water coming from the tributaries; so it overflowed the dam.
“So, this flood disaster that affected Maiduguri and Jere areas of Borno State was largely due to overflow of water from Alau Dam, which is about 10 kilometers from Maiduguri city centre, owing to massive inflow from Ngadda river, a major tributary of River Yedzaram.”
