Medical expert wants ban on human activities near Lamingo dam

 Dr. Nyam Azi, medical doctor with the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) has called on Plateau government to ban human activities near the Lamingo Dam, located in Lamingo community of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau.

Azi gave the advice in a letter dated August 10, addressed to Gov. Simon Lalong, through the Commissioner of Urban and Town Planning

The letter was made available to Newsmen.

According to the expert, the continuous human activities around the dam pose serious threats to the health to the majority of people who uses it as a source of drinking water.

The Dam, constructed in the 70s by the regime of the Late Joseph Gomwalk, aimed at providing potable water for residents of Jos and environs

“Sir the Lamingo Dam was constructed in the 1970s to provide clean safe, portable water to residents of Jos Metropolis and environs.

“This conception was apt, the execution was done to near perfection and since then it has served this purpose and much more as it is also a source of water for most bottling and sachet water companies within the Jos city.

“But over the decades there has been increasing human activities around the dam and this includes farming activities, mechanic workshops, block industries, Gas plants and shops.

“These activities may appear benign on the surface but on the closer look they have disastrous consequence, as modern farming now employs the use of herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers in the form of Nitrates, Phosphate or Urea.

“The oils from the mechanic workshops, the cement from the block industry and excreta from humans all get washed into the dam, polluting the major source of water and these ends up in our homes as drinking water.

“The catastrophic health consequences from this poisoned water can only be imagined; the damage done by the consumption of this water cannot be undone but the pollution can be stopped.

“This in my opinion can be achieved by prohibiting all human activities around the dam with the exception of hiking or sightseeing 100 metres away from the dam,” he advised

Azi further urged the governor to institute the prohibition and carry out cleansing exercise around the dam to rid off the waste that has been generated by decades of these activities within the shortest possible time.

Supreme reports that the expert copied Commissioner for Health anf the General Manager, Jos Metropolitan Development Board (JMDB)