The Federal Government, on Sunday, charged state governments to prepare against impending floods this year and called for the establishment of local emergency committees across states.
Last week, the Federal Government declared that Nigeria would definitely witness another round of flood in many states this year, but stated that early preparations had commenced to avoid some of the mistakes that were made in 2022.
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The Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency, Mustapha Ahmed, had told journalists in Abuja that;
It is going to flood again this year, there is no doubt about that. It is going to flood. How severe it will be is what we don’t know for now, but it’s actually going to flood again.
Speaking on the issue in a statement issued by NEMA in Abuja on Sunday, Ahmed advised stakeholders to brace-up and prepare to mitigate against the likelihood of flood this year.
He gave the advice against the backdrop of the 2023 Seasonal Climate Prediction released last week by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, which indicated that there would be normal to above normal rainfall in some states this year.
The statement read in part;
The NEMA DG, who spoke in Abuja with the hindsight of last year’s flood that devastated many communities across the states, said it was imperative for state governments to support their own Emergency Management Agencies to be operationally ready, and also establish Local Emergency Committees for grassroots participation in disaster management.
It stated that Ahmed also addressed participants at the close of the International Disaster Management Executive Seminar for Nigerian Emergency Management Stakeholders organised by NEMA, with facilitators from Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre.
Ahmed told participants at the seminar that NEMA had already begun its preparation as evidenced in the capacity training event.
