by Olatunji Saliu
ABUJA, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government on Wednesday said there were prospects of an end to the devastating floods which recently ravaged parts of the West African country.
Speaking to reporters after a weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in the capital Abuja, the minister of water resources, Suleiman Adamu, said indications had emerged that the worst period was over in the floods which affected at least 10 states across the country.
According to Adamu, water has begun to go down from the Lagdo Dam in neighboring Cameroon since last Saturday, and this portends a strong indication that the flood water would begin to recede.
He said the water level in Lokoja, one of the worst-hit cities by the flood, had dropped by six centimeters and is still going down.
Lokoja, which is the capital of Kogi State in Nigeria's central region, has witnessed heavy floods caused by torrential rainfalls and surging waters from a tributary of River Niger, the principal river of West Africa.
On September 8, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency said the height of River Niger in Lokoja was at 10.1 meters and continued to rise on an hourly basis.
In 2012, the water level rose to 9.74 meters during a similar flooding situation.
Local authorities said the release of excess water from the Lagdo Dam on Sept. 15 had also contributed to the current flooding situation.
"Hopefully, the worst is over; except if there is an unforeseen and unprecedented amount of rainfall, which is very unlikely but not also unlikely to happen. We don't hope it will," Adamu said.
"We should be able to see most of the flood water receding from now," the minister added.
Seven states including Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Anambra, Delta, and Bayelsa are on the floodplains of River Niger.
The government had also put five more states, including Edo, Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, and Rivers states, on alert for heavy flooding.
According to the latest data by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), about 441,251 people had been affected by flood in about 50 local government areas in Nigeria.
In a situation report released on Monday, the national relief agency said a total of 108 people were killed by the flood and 192 others wounded.
Sanni Datti, the spokesman for NEMA, confirmed to Xinhua that 122,653 hectares of agricultural land were damaged and 13,031 houses have been destroyed so far by the devastating flood.
Kogi, with a total of 118,199 people affected by the flood, is the worst-hit by the disaster, the NEMA spokesman said.
