The Federal Government, on Sunday, July 7 2024 said it has activated the various emergency centres across the country to help in tackling the flood situation in states.
It also urged residents living in flood-prone locations to move away from floodplains, stressing that responses from citizens in some of the affected states had been below expectation.
The National Emergency Management Agency,
Some state governments also announced the commencement of river dredging in their domains, while others ordered residents in flood-prone areas to evacuate.
On Friday, the Federal Government said no fewer than 10 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, had either experienced various degrees of flooding or recorded casualties as rains intensified.
The report stated that the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof Joseph Utsev, who dropped the red alert during a press briefing in Abuja, warned that 21 more states might suffer flooding.
He stated this against the background of the Wednesday downpour which grounded business and commercial activities in Lagos and Ogun states.
The resulting flooding brought down a two-storey building in the Mushin area of Lagos and overwhelmed residents while pupils could not attend schools in parts of the state.
Speaking on what NEMA was doing to help out, the agency’s spokesperson, Ezekiel Manzo, said the Director-General of the agency, Zubaida Umar, had activated NEMA’s emergency centres in states.
“The present urban flooding that has been witnessed in many states did not come by surprise. It is part of the situation that has been earlier forecasted and it was based on this forecast that NEMA had been carrying out various sensitisation and stakeholder meetings in various locations on this same matter.
“So following this situation, the Director-General has activated all the NEMA branch offices, they are all on standby and the DG has directed that they should work with the states to ensure that proper support is given to people affected in various locations,” Manzo stated.
He also emphasised that “Many states that received our alert have been responding positively to it. We have received a good response from Anambra. We were in Anambra on Wednesday where the DG met with the deputy governor of the state, who stood in for the governor.
“The DG also had meetings with traditional rulers and religious leaders on the flood situation and they were happy about the development. This is because the South-East, particularly Anambra State, is usually the worst hit.
“The message that was delivered to them was that people should not wait until the floods come. They should move away from the floodplains,” he stated.
Commenting on the recent devastating flood in Lagos, the NEMA official stated that “it was essentially because people built on the waterways and blocked drainages. So the warning has been sounded, but the responses are not commensurate with what is expected.
“This is why we are having this situation and NEMA is reiterating that the warning given to the public concerning the flood is not a joke. What we are seeing now is just the early part of the situation, we don’t know what it will look like as the rains intensify.”
A pupil was swept away by the flooding in the Ketu area of Lagos.
In the report, the water resources minister explained that the Annual Flood Outlook by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency released in April had predicted that 148 local government areas in 31 states fell within the high flood risk areas.
The affected states include Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Kebbi.
Meanwhile, NEMA again stated that it had written letters to governors earlier on the impending floods, stressing that it was time for everyone to work together to tackle the challenge.
“NEMA wrote letters to all the state governments and they have been engaging the stakeholders. So now is the time for every organisation that has something to do with disaster management to activate their resources for response to the floods.
“NEMA is also calling on state governments to know that this is the time for them to activate all their preparations for the flood. The Director-General of NEMA has activated all our zonal offices, they are 16 in number.
“The DG has instructed all offices, our offices nationwide, to work with the state emergency management agencies within their areas of responsibilities. For instance, we have our office in Ekiti that is responsible for Ekiti and Ondo.
“So Ekiti office needs to work with the Ekiti State Emergency Management Agency and Ondo State Emergency Management. We also have our office in Ibadan which is responsible for Oyo, Ogun and Osun.
“So our officers in Ibadan, for instance, have been activated to work with the three states to make sure that the search and rescue operations in those areas are carried out effectively. So far, our officers have been deployed to the scene and they have responded to situations as they occur.”