Zubaida Umar, the director-general of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has urged for immediate actions to prevent flooding in light of the 2024 seasonal climate prediction and annual flood outlook.
Speaking at a two-day meeting in Abuja on climate-related disaster preparedness and mitigation, Ms. Umar emphasized the importance of using reliable data to develop effective response strategies and called for increased collaboration among stakeholders to promote proactive measures against flooding across the nation.
The D-G added, “Stakeholders with vast experiences in various fields such as Agriculture, Health, Water Resources, and Infrastructure would brainstorm and come up with actionable climate-related disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies.”
She said that the strategies should assist in preparing and responding to the expected impact of the climate hazards.
Ms Umar highlighted the significance of early warning information to enable communities and institutions anticipate and prepare for disasters before they occur.
She said that the meeting was also part of NEMA’s 2024 flood management action plan, in view of the seasonal alert by the Nigeria Metrological Service Agency (NiMet) and Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA).
“We brought all stakeholders together based on the report we received from NiMet and NIHSA, and we are here to map out plans and strategies.
“We have already gone out, we have started sensitising the general public not to build on waterways and today, we are going to map out more strategies to see how we can mitigate the effect of these flooding or drought in the country,” she said.