Flood: Nasarawa Government Urges Riverine Communities to Assess and Boost Awareness Efforts

Amina Mohammed, Lafia

 

Nasarawa State Government has urged the flood-prone Local Government Areas and riverine communities to evacuate to higher grounds, and also intensified awareness to Avert flood.

 

Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdullahi Sule on Fire Service and Disaster Management, Mrs Beauty Ebu,  stated this after the monthly sanitation exercise in Lafia, the state capital.

 

According to her, the state government through its relevant ministries and agencies has since intensified sensitization of riverine communities in the flood-prone LGAs, noting that people had started complying.

 

“The most important thing now is to evacuate from the risk areas, on our part as Government, we will support the victims of the flood, especially those whose crops, farmlands, and houses are affected.

 

 “We cannot leave the victims of flood like that without supporting them, we have been giving them support and we will continue to support the victims of flood and other related disasters in the state,” she noted.

 

Provided speed boats

The said the Government had provided speed boats for the riverine communities for the evacuation in the event of flooding.

 

“Government is fully prepared to distribute relief materials – both food and non-food items to the victims should the flood happen as predicted,” she said.

 

The Governor’s Aide, however, said that the state had not recorded any loss of lives in the flood-related disaster this year.

 

Also Chief Prosecutor Officer of the Sanitation and also director of enforcement and compliances, Nasarawa State Waste Management and Sanitation Authority, Dr Abubakar Mohammed, said the exercise recorded 85 percent compliance.

 

He, however, said that 126 defaulters were arrested across the 13 local government areas of the state and noted that they would be prosecuted according to the Nasarawa State environmental laws.

 

“The task force has been set up after the last sanitation to clean drains, notice have been served to the residents and shop owners respectively to clean up their drains for easy flow of water.”

 

He said the government trucks are going around to evacuate the dirt to the final dumping site to prevent an extreme repercussions of the flood as Nasarawa state is one of the states predicted to experience flooding by Nigeria Meteorological Agency.

 

Lateefah Ibrahim