As the rainy season approaches, the Nigerian Government, through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has warned Nigerians to expect severe flooding in 2023.
The Director General of NEMA, Mr Mustapha Ahmed, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja during the Experts’ Technical Meeting on 2023 Climate-Related Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Strategies.
Recall that in 2022, Nigeria also experienced severe flooding, which displaced thousands and destroyed farmlands.
Severe flooding: Mr Mustapha Ahmed Nigeria will witness severe flooding this year citing predictions from relevant agencies.
He added there had been seasonal climate predictions and annual flood outlooks by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), adding that the flood disaster in 2022 was a learning experience, and NEMA would also spread early warning messages to states and Local Government Areas (LGAs) and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
- “We have started early this year, as we are ready for early warning and early action. We will bombard every citizen, state and local government with this information as we want them to know that it is serious. We will not keep quiet. We want them to know that there will be flooding this year,’’ he said.
NEMA warned those living around water channels and flood plains should take precautions.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of NIHSA, Mr Clement Nze, said that 178 LGAs in 32 states and the FCT had been predicted to experience severe flooding in 2023. He said:
- “This time, we came out early with this prediction and we expect that relevant actors, governments and individuals will go to work. We expect that actions should be taken, especially at the sub-national levels, early enough, to mitigate the impact of flooding in the country.”
What you should know: Nigeria’s Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) requested the sum of N100 billion as its intervention fund to repair roads damaged by the 2022 nationwide flooding.
The request was made by FERMA’s Managing Director, Mr Nurudeen Rafindadi, at the 2023 budget defence session with the Senate Committee on FERMA last November.
The FERMA boss revealed that it has already evaluated damages done on the affected roads across the states.
Rafindadi, speaking with the chairman of the committee, Sen. Gershom Bassey, on steps being taken by FERMA to re-fix roads washed away by flood across the country said the agency has carried out an evaluation, and that the sum is needed in its intervention fund to resume repairs.
