The federal government has said that this year’s flood disaster in the country is unprecedented in its history.
Minister of Water Resources Engineer Sulaiman Adamu announced this at the weekly meeting of the executive council today Wednesday.
More than 600 people have been officially confirmed to have died in the floods that affected two-thirds of the country’s 36 states.
According to the government, the main cause of this disaster is the excessive rainfall which is more than expected this year, even in sone areas of the country that normally have less rain due to their proximity to the desert.
In his speech while addressing the media, the Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, said that he told the Council that the flood has destroyed more than 150 roads and bridges across the country, which requires up to 80 billion naira to be repaired:
“We have identified 154 damaged roads and bridges that should be repaired immediately so as to continue using them.”
“And the cost of the repair works in these areas alone is 80 billion Naira and we still do not know the rest of the areas.” He added.
“As a result, we have instructed the senior officials of the Federal Ministry of Works in the affected states to go out and collect the numbers of the other roads and bridges that have been damaged and the damage they have caused,” he added.
He further said, “So now we are continuing to take pictures and videos of the places, at the moment we are compiling a report but it is not over yet. Because there are areas that the water have not withdrawn, we have to wait.”
“As a result of the fact that some of the areas affected by the flood are still full of water, there is a fear of outbreak of diseases there.” He said.
However, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Hajiya Sadiya Farouk said that they are trying to deal with this problem as well.
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The minister told the Council that so far the flood has caused the death of 612 people while 2776 others have been injured.
The flood has also rendered more than 1 million and 400 thousand people homeless, bringing the total of about 3 million people, and two hundred thousand people, that are affected by the disaster, including those whose farms were affected by the flood.
