… Says it is taking all necessary actions to bring relief to people affected
By Chimezie Godfrey
The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, in collaboration with other relevant agencies has concluded plans to tackle the menace of flooding ravaging parts of the country.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr. Nasir Sani Gwarzo who revealed that the scale of this year’s flooding is at similar level with that of the 2012, assured that government is taking all necessary actions to mitigate the impact on affected persons and prevent further damages.
He said,”Today is a very important day where many Nigerians are being honoured but because of some emergencies many of us who are supposed to be there are kept here in this meeting to decide on a very serious issue which is the national emergency that is affecting many states across the country, and that is the phenomenon flooding.
“Since the year 2012 where we have a major instance of this kind of thing, we are witnessing yet another flooding issue which at very high scale, and from all indications experts responsible for various aspects of controlling this disaster have informed us that scale is almost similar to that of the 2012 level. And therefore we decided to come together as the agencies responsible for various aspects of the response to take a quick decision on the way forward.
“Whereas so many communities have already been affected there is still prediction that many more communities may affected especially along the lines of River Benue, River Niger and down up to the ocean. And so far the various agencies that are responsible for the for controlling or mitigating the impact of the flooding have made their contributions.
“We came here to focus those contributions in the way that the impact will be reduced and whatever need to rescued ahead can further be rescued. We are going to come up with a Communique at the end of this meeting. We are here to tell Nigerians that we are very much aware of what is happening, and we are prepared to reduce the impact, and we are prepared also to make sure that those places that have not been affected atleast get some relief.”
Dr. Gwarzo added that,”early in the year NiMet had predicted that some parts of the country will witness increased rain fall and also deep into the rainy season we also came to the reality that the dam in one of the neighbouring countries has to be released in order to prevent a bigger catastrophe and that has also increased the volume of water that Nigeria is taking in and has resulted in the flooding. But by the grace of God the impact will be reduced to the minimum and more lives will be saved, and we seek public support in ensuring that the damage is not further worsened.
“NEMA has come up with relief materials which has reached nothing less than 315,000 people that are displaced across the lines of the flood impact. And it is on record that over 500 persons have been reported dead. And also 1,411,51 persons were affected or displaced . The displaced persons that have moved out of their locations is up to 790, 254, and about 1,546 persons injured. Further 44,099 houses were partially damaged, 45,249 totally damaged and 76,168 hecters of farmland partially damaged, while 70, 566 hecters of farmland are completely destroyed by the flood.
“It is therefore at this scale that we are taking all the necessary actions to bring relief the people affected. With this all the agencies that are here have renewed their commitments to strengthen their efforts in reaching out to the people affected and bring relief to them,” he said.
Gwarzo disclosed that they have come up a three fronts approach to forestall future occurrence of flooding in the country.
“We also came up with a three fronts approach for the future: one is what are the. immediate actions that we be taken by the respective agencies; second is what are the short action that will be taken by the agencies responsible and then long term actions,” the Perm. Sec. said.
