LAGOS, 7 August 2007 (IRIN) - As the rainy season begins to peak throughout Nigeria, a farming district in the centre of the country is the latest area to go underwater.

Crops were destroyed and at least 17 people died in the area. Untold homes have also been washed away, local officials said on Monday.

As of Monday at least 10 communities on the Wase River in Plateau state had been affected by the floods as a river overflowed its banks, local government official Abubakar Mohammed told reporters.

Apart from the town of Wase, other towns affected in the area include Gyambar, Kukawa, Saluwe, Anguwan Gar, Wase Tofa, Zanko, Gandu and Gwaiwan Kogi.

Among the casualties were 11 passengers of a bus who drowned when the inundation upturned their vehicle, Mohammed said. Other people drowned as waters flooded their homes.

Household items, livestock and farmlands were also destroyed, he said.

Thousands of displaced people are sheltering at the Duwil Primary School in Wase town, Mohammed said. Aid organisations so far have provided families with 200 blankets as well as sleeping mats and grain.

"These are not enough but we are expecting more assistance from the state and the federal government as well as humanitarian agencies," said Mohammed.

In the past week, floods hundreds of kilometres southwest in Lagos and Ogun states made thousands of people homeless, while in northeast Borno State some 1,000km away at least nine people died and thousands were forced from their homes.

Health officials say flooding has also caused pollution in wells, rivers and other drinking water sources.

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