From Okwe Obi, Abuja

The Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed, has disclosed that 210 local government areas in 32 states have been grossly affected by flooding including the loss of lives and property.

Ahmed, who did not mention the affected states, stated this at a national consultative workshop convened to discuss the 2021 flood preparedness, mitigation and response yesterday in Abuja.

He noted that Agency was already monitoring the situation to activate emergency operations centres in the affected areas for search and rescue as well as conduct assessments to support the displaced persons.

‘There have been reported cases of flooding in 210 Local Government Areas in 32 States and Federal Capital Territory with attendant loss of lives, livelihoods and properties,’ he said.

Related News

‘As part of our collective responsibilities Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) need to always come together with the view to plan for effective response to floods to save lives, destruction of properties and infrastructure.’

He said the workshop was imperative as one of the expedient steps necessary to collectively prepare for and provide strategies to strengthen flood risk mitigation and effective response among disaster management stakeholders in the country.

In view of the emerging situation, the explained that the workshop was also called to strategise and ‘define an effective process that will allow stakeholders at State, Local Government and community levels to prepare sufficiently to mitigate as well as respond to anticipated climate risk and secondary hazards whenever the need arises.

‘NEMA will continue to count on the continuous cooperation and collaboration of all its stakeholders in collectively working towards saving lives, properties and attending to the distressed in our society.’

Earlier, NEMA’s Director of Planning Research and Forecasting Alhassan Nuhu said the workshop was a continuation of the Agency’s planned activities since the release of the 2021 seasonal climate prediction by the Nigerian Meteorological Service Agency and the Annual Flood Outlook by the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency.