National Emergency Management Agency decries loss of lives to Floods
Mnena Iyorkegh, Abuja.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says over three hundred people have lost their lives so far due to flooding in the country, making it the worst flooding in ten years, according to available figures at its disposal.
The Director-General of NEMA, Mustapha Habib Ahmed, disclosed this at a one-day strategic workshop with Disaster Risk Management stakeholders in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
He also said that the impact of flooding disaster this year could surpass that of year 2012, and has also affected more than one hundred communities daily within the country.
Mr. Ahmed further said that as it is known globally, disaster issue generally has become a cross-cutting thematic area, straddling all facets of human endeavours and sectors when it occurs.
“If you look at the statistics, the flood that has hit this country and communities is the worst.
“The numbers are still going up based on seasonal climate prediction, and the annual flood outlook released by NiMet and NIHSA.
“So the figures are still going up and communities and lives are seriously affected.
“We get more than 50 alerts in a day.
“We get over 100 communities hit in one day.
“The disaster this year is worse than 2012 and the figures are still going up.
“Over 300 lives have been lost to flood alone this year.
“It is, therefore, a collective responsibility, as a people with a shared vision, to endure that we build a resilient society for sustainable development through our statutory functions as spelt out in our various institutional enactments,” said the NEMA Director-General.
While speaking on the actions taken by the agency to reduce the effects of disaster risks, Mr. Ahmed said that NEMA can only work effectively with collaboration from the states and the locals.
“Disaster management, as they say, is local. It occurs and affects a community inside a state, inside a municipal government.
“So the first responders are always the local government.
“We have written countless times to states that they should set up a local emergency management committee.
“NEMA cannot be in every community in Nigeria, there are over a thousand communities.
“The local government must step in first, then state.
“When the capacity is exceeded, then NEMA comes,” he further explained.
He also reacted to the repeated occurrence of calamities:
“Perhaps they are not taking the reports we are delivering to them very seriously.
“We transmit the risk-mapping to states, indicating risk regions and disaster-prone areas, as soon as the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) releases its report.
“So these states have all these information. With all these information, we cannot be everywhere all the time but the states can start and NEMA can follow up.
“The state and local government are yet to respond to us, but we have written. That is the most important thing.
“We have written to them, given them the seasonal climate prediction and risk-mapping, also identifying areas and advising them to set up the local Emergency Management Committees.
“As it is, most states don’t have local Emergency Management Committees in their states.”
The Director, Disaster Risk Reduction, NEMA, Dr. Daniel Obot, said that the workshop was aimed at sharing ideas with stakeholders on how to reduce disaster risks in the country.
“Before now, people knew disaster in terms of relief intervention but with this workshop, all the stakeholders will deliberate at the national level on how to reduce the risks of disasters.
“And it is expected that they all take back what they have learnt to their various institutions and realign their activities to key into disaster risk reduction because when the risks are reduced, the impacts will be less. The effects and consequences will be less.
“So this event is to stimulate preparedness, prevention and create awareness on mitigation measures that will reduce the effects of disasters in our communities and nation as a whole,” he said.
The agency maintained that management of disasters in the contemporary period has shifted from classical response in form of humanitarian relief intervention to disaster risk reduction.
According to the agency, with the emphasis now on preparedness, mitigation and adaptation, both qualitative and quantitative data have become very central for disaster risk informed decision, planning and programme implementation.
