Nigeria Flooding Displaces 2 Million People

[Elmore Furth]

Source: Associated Press

(AP) Nigerian authorities opened the gates at two swollen dams in the country's rain-soaked north, sending a flood into a neighboring state that has displaced 2 million people, officials said Friday.

Water from the Challawa and Tiga dams has swept through rural Jigawa state, bordering the nation of Niger, said Umar Kyari, a spokesman for the state governor. Kyari said the rising waters have affected about 5,000 villages in the typically arid region approaching the Sahara Desert.

Typically, the water released yearly from the dams flows into farm fields across the region known as the Sahel, a band of semiarid land stretching across Africa south of the Sahara. There, farmers use the water in the region's brief fertile season to grow corn, rice and a variety of vegetables. However, rains this year have been unusually strong, putting pressure on the reservoirs and dams in the area.

In Nigeria's northwest state of Sokoto, floodwater topped levees and a dam failed during recent flooding, spilling water into surrounding villages. Local newspapers reported as many as 40 people died.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/24/world/main6898503.shtml

[ensho]

1. flooding rises the ranks of the poor

flooding the world over is becoming more frequent and bigger.

flooding will be the world's nemesis.

newly poor are being created as I type in Minn. and Wisc. which is flooding.

[defendandprotect]

2. Global Warming ... droughts and floods ... severe weather systems ....