Nigeria requires N3 trillion for disaster risk management

If urgent steps are not taken to mitigate disaster ravaging the country, an estimated N3 trillion may be required to respond to disaster across the 36 states and the FCT by 2020 the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has said

The Director-General of the agency Mustapha Maihaja at the unveiling of the National Disaster Risk Management Policy in Abuja said the N3 trillion would mainly be used for providing short term relief and replacement of damaged infrastructure.

The policy, jointly developed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will improve legislation, early warning system, better preparedness as well as national platforms for disaster risk reduction. He said “with continued rise in both natural and human-induced disasters resulting in loss of lives, large scale displacement, socio-economic dislocation and environmental, if we continue with the current business-as-usual, an estimated amount of 3 trillion naira will be required to curb and respond to disasters across the 36 states in Nigeria in 2020, “

Maihaja noted the yearly devastating flood taking a toll on all aspects of life and development need a shift from our places of comfort and take on disaster risk management with full force through improved legislation, improved awareness, improved early warning systems, better preparedness, including the establishment of sustainable structures and national platforms for disaster risk reduction. He said to be ahead of the curve of humanitarian need and economic losses there was a need to set up strategies to address underlying risk drivers.

The DG affirmed that the policy document was to institutionalize development and application of disaster risk management systems, mechanisms, practices, and programmes aimed at effectively reducing hazard risk to ensure resilience to disasters within the context of sustainable development at the federal, state and local government levels of the national economy.

He explained that the document outlines the framework providing directions for supporting measures to strengthen communities, individuals, businesses and institutions to minimize the adverse effects of disasters in Nigeria adding that it also provides a direction for enhancing the ability to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from disasters across all elements in the country.

He added that the national policy also responds to the various Disaster Risk Reduction challenges by articulating the renewed commitment of the government to Disaster Risk Management as It streamlines a set of guidelines for decision making regarding what needs to be done to achieve the desired outcome in Disaster Risk Management.

On his part, NEMA Director, Disaster Risk Reduction, Vincent Owan, said it is a framework that targets the substantial reduction of disaster losses of lives, livelihoods, health, economic, and environmental assets.

Owan also explained that the Sendai Framework is a 15 year voluntary, binding agreement that recognize that the state has its primary role to reduce disaster risk and a collective mandate to save lives.“As we’re all aware, the world paradigm shift is on disaster risk management, and this can only be achieved through a systematic and articulated process.”