Flooding in Nigeria highlights pressure on dams
Copyright 2001 Agence France-Presse
August 31, 2001
LAGOS Aug 31 (AFP) - Flooding in northern Nigeria which left at least 14 dead Friday, plus dozens missing and tens of thousands homeless, highlights the worldwide case against dams.
Heavy rains battered the normally dry region of northern Nigeria, around the city of Kano, at the weekend swelling the build up of water in the Tiga and Shallawa dams already full after weeks of rains.
That build up -- would previously have run away gradually -- was dangerous.
On Monday it overflowed and sent waters coursing down the main Wudil river, sweeping through towns and villages, carrying away people and livestock and smashing through mud-built homes.
In the town of Kura, 14 people were confirmed drowned after a boat capsized as they were attempting to reach dry land.
Local community leaders and relief workers told AFP Thursday that in the village of Gachi, 10 children were missing feared drowned after being swept away by a wall of water.
Others told of a canoe carrying 30 people which capsized Wednesday near Gwaram in Jigawa State.
Kano State spokesman Ibrahim Ado admitted Friday that 14 people had been confirmed dead and dozens more were missing while tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
Around the world, a coalition of environmentalists, rights activists and economists have stepped up a campaign questioning the impact of dams on countries and on people.
The International Committee on Dams, Rivers and People (ICDRP), comprising rights and environmental groups from 13 countries, say large dams have forced between 40 and 80 million people from their homes and lands, and led to extreme economic and physical hardship.
Indigenous, tribal and peasant communities have been particularly hard hit.
In India, the country's Supreme Court decided this week to pursue contempt of court proceedings against Booker Prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy over her opposition to a controversial dam project.
Roy, who won the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel "The God of Small Things," opposes the Narmada dam which she says would displace millions of people and inundate several hundred villages.
And in Nigeria, authorities in the countries largest state, Niger, have called for a commission to be set up to pay compensation for those whose lives have been affected and to pay for resettlement.
"We have three dams in our state and half a million people we have to resettle. We cannot do it. We do not have the resources," said Shuaibu Mohammed Baddegi.
"The people who get the electricity, the people whose lights are powered by these dams, are all city people and they do not even think about those whose lives are ruined," he added.
In 1999, 16 people were killed and thousands made homeless by flooding unleashed by dams in Niger state and this year, if rains continue, up to 60,000 homes would be threatened, Baddegi said.
The proponents of dam schemes argue that they can be used for irrigation in dry period, as is done in Kano State, or to generate electricity which also empowers people.
But their opponents say they tend overall to have a harmful impact on the environment, disturbing natural ecosystems, and hit the poorest of the poor, often lowland dwellers who see no benefit from the schemes and lose their lives and homes.
ICDRP member groups, which include the International Rivers Network (IRN) a Berkeley, California-based human rights and environment group, pressured the World Bank to establish the World Commission on Dams, an independent review body.