Benue taking steps to prevent flooding, says commissioner

July 28, 2026 6:01 pm

Benue State Government has stated that it has embarked on proactive measures to avert possible flooding in the state.

Part of this is daily reading of water levels in order to know when to evacuate people living in flood-prone areas to a safe place.

The Commissioner for Water Resources, Environment and Climate Change, Odoh Ugwu, stated this on Tuesday while speaking with journalists in Makurdi.

The Federal Government, through the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, had issued a seven-day flood advisory to some states, including Benue, warning of a medium flood risk, and the agency said the alert followed rising water levels at key river monitoring stations, increasing the likelihood of localised flooding along river channels and floodplains.

The Commissioner said that the state government had continually prepared for the raining season and had made available all the equipment for water reading.

According to the commissioner, the state government, aside from creating awareness, also cleared the drainage for free flow of water.

He said, “At the beginning of every year, we prepare for the rainy season and we start by ensuring that all the equipment we need in terms of water level reading and all that are intact, because we use it to know where the water level, where we are, to know when we are approaching the danger level and where we need to take action and all that.

“Another thing was to create awareness during the rainy season by informing people living around the riverine area to move from the low level to a higher ground where they will be safe pending when they will have a normal level of water within their areas.

The commissioner added that the ongoing road construction in the capital city has really helped to control flooding.

He further said, “Here in Makurdi before now, you will be hearing of the issue of flooding in Makurdi, particularly, Achusa area and other environs, but because of the rapid road construction that is going on, we will have less of that this year because most of these roads come with well-planned drainages that take care of most of these issues that we are talking about.

Ugwu, however, appealed to people of the state not to dump refuses, their waste in the waterways and added that the ministry, in conjunction with urban development, is working to bring down and remove all those houses that are sitting on the waterways.

John Charles

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