The Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency, Mr Mustapha Ahmed, says 233 local government areas in 32 states including Federal Capital Territory have been identified to experience flooding in 2022.
Ahmed disclosed this at a National Consultative Workshop on 2022 Flood Preparedness, Mitigation and Response, organised by the agency, on Tuesday in Abuja.
Although, the affected local governments and states were not mentioned, the Director -General said the agency has sent advisory letters and maps showing predicted flood risk areas to the concern state governments
The NEMA boss said the workshop was one of the steps outlined by the agency to bring stakeholders together.Saying, it was to collectively prepare and provide strategies to strengthen flood risk mitigation and effective response.
According to Ahmed said, “This (workshop) followed the 2022 Seasonal Climate Prediction released by Nigerian Meteorological Agency and the Annual Flood Outlook released by Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency.
“Efforts must be made to mitigate and respond effectively to flooding.
We have sent advisory letters and maps showing predicted flood risk areas in various states to the respective state governments
We have also produced risk maps for vulnerable local government areas as forecasted by NIHSA’s Annual Flood Outlook.”
He advised state emergency management agencies and local emergency management committees to be proactive
for effective and efficient flood preparedness, mitigation and response.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, called on relevant stakeholders to take proactive measures in addressing floods and its associated impacts.
Dr. Abubakar Suleiman, the Deputy Director, Disaster Management, represented Farouq.