NIHSA lists high flood risk states
National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), has set in motion mechanism for emergency preparedness, mitigation and response activities across the country.

Director General, NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed disclosed that under an emergency coordination forum, the agency is taking various steps to prepare for and mitigate possible flood disaster this year, various at various levels in partnership with critical stakeholders.

He made the disclosure at an Energy Coordination Forum Meeting, yesterday in Abuja.

“We have already started experiencing flood in some parts of the country this year. This calls for concerted effort so as to address it and many other disasters.

“The ECF is therefore an avenue for stakeholders to come together to discuss humanitarian challenges being faced by the citizens as a result of these disasters/emergencies and to proffer ways of mitigating their impacts on citizens.

“You will recall that the 2022 flood disaster claimed 665 lives, displaced 2,437,411 persons and affected 4,476,867 persons,” he said.

Ahmed adds that coordination is a vital component of disaster management which needs to be given adequate attention. In line with NEMA’s mandate of coordinating emergency preparedness, mitigation and response activities across the country, hence NEMA has dimmed it fit to resuscitate the ECF. to foster partnership, collaboration and cooperation among relevant stakeholders in emergency management in the country.

Listing some of the key states consider high risk to floods this year, Director General, NIHSA, Engineer Clement Nzeh, said the 2023 Annual Flood Outlook, (AFO), prediction unveils the hydrological year for and the onset of the raisns for Nigeria.

According to him, “The high flood risk states as predicted in the AFO are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, and Edo.

Others are “Ekiti, Imo, Jigsaws, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, as well as Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT).