As the Minna Operations Office (MOO) of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) commemorates the 2022 International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR), it has admonished some residents of flood-prone areas for neglecting early warnings.
This is contained in a statement made available to the media on Thursday signed by Zainab Saidu, Head, MOO of the Agency.
The Minna Operations Office’s jurisdiction covers Niger and Kwara states.
The statement says that from NEMA’s findings, many communities affected along the tributaries of River Niger did not heed early flood warnings.
The warnings are contained in the Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) by Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Annual Flood Outlook (AFO) by Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA).
“It is, however, disheartening to note that while some people respond to the flood early warnings usually made available early in the year, many others choose to turn deaf ears to these warnings.
“This is mainly the reason why many persons are affected by flood because the communities affected in Niger and Kwara states have continued to be the same with only little variation.
“NEMA in executing its mandate is always in the forefront of initiating activities that will ensure early action is taken to reduce or minimize harm to people, assets, and livelihoods,” the statement added.
It says if NEMA’s effort is corroborated by the people, disasters generally will be greatly mitigated and losses will be reduced to the barest minimum.
The statement strongly admonished the people of Niger and Kwara to ensure adherence to the SCP by NiMET and the AFO by NIHSA.
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“This call becomes very important to avoid a re-occurrence of the heavy 2022 flood that ravaged and inundated several communities across the states.
“The SCP and AFO constitute the flood early warning mechanism to forestall or mitigate flood disaster in Nigeria.
“This call is expedient in achieving the 2022 theme of the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) which focuses on Target G of the Sendei Framework,” it explained.
The statement added that the focus of the 2022 theme is to “substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning system and disaster risk information and assessment to people by 2030”.
In the statement, the Head of MOO also urged journalists and the media to take up the task of disseminating early warning information on disasters as their social responsibility to the people.
She said that disaster management is a humanitarian activity that needs all hands to be on deck in order to reduce the occurrence of events that lead to the loss of lives and properties of the people.
NEMA, Minna Operations Office yearly embarks on different sensitization activities and stakeholders meetings prior to the rainy season to particularly enlighten the people about impending floods every year.
The IDDR is an opportunity to acknowledge the progress made towards preventing and reducing disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods, economies, and basic infrastructure.
This is in line with the international agreement for reducing Global Disaster Risk and losses.
