FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES PARTNERS NIGERIAN WOMEN FOR GREEN AND GAS INITIATIVE (NW4GGI) / AFRICAMA TO AVERT FUTURE FLOODING DISASTER
The Honorable Minister for Water Resources, Engr Suleiman Hussein Adamu played host to a joint team of the Nigerian Women for Green and Gas Initiative and the Africa Center for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Actions (AFRICAMA). The visit by the hybrid organization was to show its solidarity and sympathy over the recent flooding disasters across the country.
Receiving the Group, the Honorable Minister appreciated its patriotic intention, promising that, in line with the recent marching order given by President Muhammadu Buhari, the relevant stakeholders shall work in sync in proffering a workable and sustainable solution to stave off future reoccurrence of such flooding. The Minister clarified that, contrary to presumption in some quarters that the Cameroonian Lagdo Dam was responsible for the flooding, experts in and outside of his Ministry were able to establish the main driver behind the disaster which was the avalanche of watersheds that dot the Nigerian landscape, especially those located on the higher plains of the country.
The Minister further posited that about 80% of the watershed and freshwater reservoirs that triggered the floods are located within the Nigerian riverbed and freshwater higher plains; hence establishing the truth that some climate-induced “Internal Forcing Mechanisms” were the actual trigger of the floods.
Responding, the Chairperson of the group and wife of a former Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, Hajia Maryam Salihu-Ibrahim thanked the Minister for receiving the technical team of climate change experts, promising, too, that the hybrid organization will join forces with the Ministry to come up with an Advocacy and a homegrown Actionable Technical Document that will address some of the concerns of the Ministry.
Contributing, the Chief of Party of the NW4GGI, Dr. Valentine Igoniwari stressed the importance of incorporating the hybrid group into the Federal Government Technical Working Committee on the Flood, further stressing that an endless list of hydrological intervention modules should be deployed to support the Ministry in its onerous task.
In the same vein, the Senior Legislative Aide on Environment, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management to the DSP, Hon. Abdulmumin Abdulsalam, assured the Minister that a strategic Technical Working Document, which promises to be a Comprehensive Action Plan, is in the offing to help in the actualization of the mandated task at hand.
Giving the vote of thanks, Madam Helen Idahusi of the NW4GGI appreciated the Minister for his wisdom and foresight in advocating for the partnership, whilst praying that the Minister shall not falter in fulfilling the Presidential Mandate given to him over the recent flooding challenge.