The Lagdo dam was built between August 1977 and July 1982 by a combination of engineers and Chinese workers, along with Cameroonian labourers.[1] The company that managed the construction was the China International Water & Electric Corp. International power company AES Corporation runs the hydroelectric dam.[2]
Its construction was intended to supply electricity to the northern part of the country and allow the irrigation of 15,000 hectares of crops downstream.[3] The dam is 308 m long, 40 m in height and 9 m thick.
Its reservoir has a potential of 7.7 billion cubic meters.[1] However, due to its aging and the silting up of its reservoir, its capacity has deteriorated over time reaching 1.6 billion m3 in 2021.[4]
Houses submerged in Makurdi, Nigeria due to the flooding of Ladgo reservoir (2012).
In 2012, water released from the dam flooded areas including Adamawa State in Nigeria, resulting in more than 10 deaths and the loss of properties worth thousands of dollars. A bigger effect of the flooding was at the lower Benue river region where more than 10,000 homes were submerged for more than two weeks. This left more than 10,000 hectares of farmland flooded and the streets of Makurdi occupied by crocodiles and other dangerous creeping creatures.[6]
In September 2022, an operation to release a portion of water from the Lagdo Dam began to secure its installations.[7] Consequently, Nigerian authorities have indicated that the discharge of water from Lagdo caused farmland to be submerged and heavy flooding in 13 states,[8] thus causing the death of 25 people in Adamawa State for instance.[9] However, the Nigerian Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu Kazaure, stated that 80% of the floods in Nigeria are caused by rainfall and not the Lagdo Reservoir, and confirmed that the cause of the flood was due to water flowing from the tributaries of Katsina Ala River and others into Benue River due to heavy downpour.[10][11]
The absence of dams to contain water released from the Lagdo Dam at any point in time has been identified as a major cause for flooding in Nigeria.[12]
