• ‘Over 1.8b persons at risk of flood worldwide’
• Five Kogi communities submerged
Lagos State government, yesterday, reiterated its commitment to becoming a benchmark for climate action, youth empowerment and sustainable urban living, especially among students in the state.
According to World Risk Report released yesterday, more than 1.8 billion persons worldwide live in areas with a significant risk of flooding due to climate change and human interventions.
In Kogi State, floods submerged Ibaji Local Council, the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mouktar Atima, said, warning communities along the river bank to immediately relocate to safer grounds.
Special Adviser to the Lagos Governor on Environment, Olakunle Rotimi-Akodu, during the Close-Out Ceremony of the Schools Plastic Collection Challenge at the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources Conference Room in Alausa, Ikeja, advocated environmental education to be included in school curricula. He encouraged youth-led projects and supported green skills and innovation in schools.
He explained that the plastic collection challenge was undertaken by the Ministry, in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) under the Green Rising Initiative, aims to mobilise young people globally to take concrete actions for climate resilience.
The initiative also seeks to equip students with education, green skills, volunteering opportunities, and the capacity to advocate for their communities
According to him, in Lagos, the Challenge represents a microcosm of global ambition, emphasising the ministry’s mandate to secure a clean, healthier, sustainable environment that supports well-being and economic growth of the state.
Rotimi-Akodu explained that from policy formulation to community engagement, waste regulation to environmental education, the government’s role is not only to enact laws but also to invest in people, especially young people to sustain those laws.
In her remarks, UNICEF Chief of Lagos Field Office, Ms Celine Lafoucriere, reaffirmed UNICEF’s commitment, alongside the state government, to ensure that every child grows up and every adult lives in a cleaner, safer and Greener environment.
She said UNICEF would ensure that the event was not simply to conclude the plastic collection challenge, but to celebrate the extraordinary dedication of young people who transformed the initiative into a resounding success.
In 2024, the World Risk Report said there were 142 disasters caused by flooding, making that the second most common trigger of disasters after storms.
The Spanish region of Valencia was especially affected in October 2024, when more than 220 people lost their lives following heavy rainfall and flooding.
In Kogi, the SEMA boss, who led the Emergency Response and Critical team on an advocacy visit to the Commissioner of Health, Dr Adams Abdullazeez, said the state was no longer safe, owing to the rising levels of the waters in the Niger and Benue rivers.
He said, according to charts of experts and managers of various dams in the country, excessive water will begin to pour into the two rivers from Tuesday night which will cause an overflow of the river bank.
Atimah said the state Ministry of Health was key to disaster management in the state, even as he intimated the health commissioner of the rising levels of the rivers, stressing that in the next 72 hours, the state will be entering a difficult period.
Responding, the Commissioner of Health, Dr Adams Abdullazeez, said the ministry was not only for healthcare services but also for human services, adding that it was adequately prepared to tackle or mitigate any disaster in the state.
He commended Governor Usman Ododo for his commitment to health issues in the state and stressed that due to the governor’s prompt intervention in last year’s flooding, no single life lost.
