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Residents of flooded communities in Lagos and Ogun states have faulted Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev on the cause of flood in their communities.
The minister had during his visit to the Oyan Dam on Tuesday asserted that the water released from the Oyan Dam in Ogun State was not responsible for the annual flooding in some parts of the states.
Utsev declared that dams were mainly responsible for the control of flooding and irrigation for agricultural purposes, and the Oyan Dam could not have been responsible for the flooding.
“The condition of the 270 million cubic water reservoir is perfect and it could not have caused the recent flooding in the states,” he said.
However, the residents faulted the minister, noting that the dam failed to release water at the appropriate time of the year due to its commercialisation and the cage fishing activities going on in the dam.
The residents expressed surprise that the minister who claimed to come all the way from Abuja on a fact finding mission based on flood alerts, refused to grant the suffering residents audience but listened to Indians who in collaboration with the Ogun Osun River Basin Development Authority prioritise fishing at the expense of human lives in their communities.
Speaking under the auspices of the Isheri North GRA Community Development Association, the residents said it is unfortunate that the minister could go ahead to give such unguided utterances without a proper assessment of the situation.
The residents said that while the management of the Ogun Osun River Basin Development Authority had in a document issued in September 2022 agreed that commercial fishing activities could be confined to levels below 56m above sea level, it had refused to implement this agreement.
The River Basins Development Authorities Act Chapter R9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, LFN, 2004 specifies the functions of the OORBDA to include undertaking comprehensive development of both surface and underground water resources for multipurpose use with emphasis on irrigation, infrastructure and flood controls. Under the law, OORBDA is also responsible for the water released from the Oyan Dam reservoir until the water enters the Lagos Lagoon on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.
According to the residents, the record of water releases from 1992 to 2002 shows that the dam can be managed differently. Within this period, they said there were no water releases during the months of August, September, October and November.
They said that flood control downstream of Oyan Dam reservoir is feasible if the reservoir is emptied and then filled with minimal water releases during the period of August, September, October and November.
According to them, the dam was not designed for industrial fishing but recreational, adding that the Ogun State government never issued any recreational and or industrial fishing licenses to the companies at the dam.
The residents wondered why their lives and properties must be put at risk to just satisfy the commercial interest of some individuals. “Why should private enterprises with zero investment in the construction of Oyan Dam be allowed to use the reservoir in such a way as to defeat one of the priority purposes, that is, flood control, for which the dam was built?”.
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