According to the National Emergency Management Agency, the heavy rains and flooding that have wreaked havoc across the country in recent times have spread 28 states, claiming 175 lives and displacing 207, 902 others.
Authorities have been urging residents in flood-prone areas to relocate as the rains persist, following the Nigerian Meteorological Agency’s warnings about the heavy rainfalls, urging preparedness for potential floods.
It was learnt that state governments, in partnership with NEMA, had commenced moves to evacuate residents in flood-prone areas to avert further disaster.
The Director-General of NEMA, Zubaida Umar, further revealed that the agency had activated the National Emergency Operation Centre following the recent flooding.
Umar, who stated this on Wednesday when the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, visited the agency following the recent retreat for chief executives of agencies under the Presidency, noted that the activation of the centre was to streamline disaster response efforts and act as a command centre for resource management and communication.
She said, “The 2024 flooding has affected 28 states across 133 Local Government Areas. The flood has displaced 207,902 persons, affected 526,703 persons, affected 79,138 houses, 1,971 injuries sustained, 106,178 hectares of farmlands affected and 175 lives have been lost.”
She said the agency had carried out disaster assessments in almost all the states, including Ogun, Rivers, Imo, Lagos, Ekiti, Edo and Kwara, for various incidents.
“The most recent for flood assessment are in Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Adamawa, Sokoto, Bauchi, Taraba, Kebbi, Kano, Benue, and Kogi,” she added.
She highlighted that the agency had coordinated response to 158 emergencies, aided 118,337 individuals, rescued 4,706, and reported 1,414 fatalities.
In his response, Gbajabiamila urged the agency to not just focus on disaster mitigation but should prevent disasters.
“The mandate that NEMA has is two-pronged. One is the prevention of disaster, the other one is to mitigate disaster when it does happen. But it appears that we concentrate mainly on the mitigation of disaster, and leave, to a very large extent, the other side of the mandate, which is prevention.
“I think in turning the page it is important that we begin to look more closely at the issue of prevention. A lot of these disasters can be prevented, and that is what NEMA is set up to do. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. And that’s the area that I think we now should begin to look at,” he stated.
The Chief of Staff to the President further stated that flooding, as has been observed, is a perennial problem in Nigeria.