Flooding: FG Evaluates The Safety Of Imo State Dams

The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Joseph Utsev, has sent technical experts to evaluate the dams in Imo to create a robust action plan to tackle challenges facing dam construction.

The Deputy Director, technical division head of the ministry, Abiola Oluwatosin, made this known to newsmen in Owerri on Friday.

She said, “The technical subcommittee inaugurated by Water Resources and Sanitation minister was in South-East to critically analyse the structural integrity of dams in Nigeria. We are in the zone to equally assess the environmental social impact of dams on the local communities and extended environment especially on the riparian communities.”

Oluwatosin added, “The essence of the technical subcommittee visit to the dams would be, to have a robust action plan that will address flooding, irrigation, power supply and hydropower development of the country. We have visited the Ivo and Adada dams in Enugu State and Amauzari and Inyishi dams in Imo State.

“We shall go back and the inter-ministerial technical committee will come together and look at all the technicalities and offer their technical advice.”

She stated that Utsev had inaugurated a technical subcommittee comprised of the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation, the Nigeria Society of Engineers, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering of Nigeria and other technical experts with the mandate to undertake a detailed assessment of dams in Nigeria to determine their structural integrity.

President Bola Tinubu had earlier in October inaugurated the Inter-ministerial technical committee on the evaluation of dams in Nigeria.

The essence was to assess the physical conditions of dams across the nation to ensure their usefulness, safety and impact on communities.

The committee, headed by Utsev, comprised of Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu; Minister of Works, Dave Umahi; National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; and Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Musa Dangiwa as members.