The federal government said Wednesday that 612 persons have been killed while 1.4 million Nigerians were displaced as a result of floods in some parts of the country.

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja, said 154 locations with transport infrastructure worth N80 billion have been impaired or damaged as a result of the floods.

Also speaking, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said it would take 30 years of consistent investment to control the menace.

He affirmed that nobody can stop the phenomenon in the country, adding that despite the early warning system in place, a lot of capital intensive initiatives remain to be done in future to avert the consequences of flood disasters.

He said it is not something that can be achieved under one administration, stressing that the present administration is already working on a flood management master plan that would take at least three months to complete.

While stressing that flood victims ignored warnings to evacuate, the minister also blamed tree felling and degraded soil for the massive impact of this year’s floods in the country.