The Federal Government through the National Emergency Management Agency, has stated that 662 people were killed by the devastating flood situation in 2022, while also predicting that there will be more flood occurrence in 2023.
According to The PUNCH, this was disclosed by the Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency, Mustapha Ahmed, on Monday in Abuja.
He said, “This is January and by tomorrow (Tuesday), NiMet (Nigeria Meteorological Agency) is releasing their seasonal climate prediction and after that I believe that in the next week or two, NIHSA (Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency) will release their own flood outlook.
“And immediately after that we will gather stakeholders to critically analyse the reports and interpret it and attach it with the vulnerable areas mapping, and send it out to states
“We are starting early because we have seen one or two mistakes that were done last year. So we have to work together and collaborate with all the states. We can’t work if NEMA is moving on one side, while the states are on the other side.”
When asked if NEMA was in communication with the Nigeria Governors Forum about flood management in states, Ahmed stated yes and emphasized that flooding would occur this year.
He said, “When we finish with this (seminar), and NiMet releases its climate prediction, and NIHSA releases its own outlook, and we analyse them and then conduct the vulnerable areas mapping, we will then interact with the governors directly, all of them.
“We don’t do that for just once, rather we identify the likely areas of disaster. It is going to flood again this year, there is no doubt about that. It is going to flood. How severe it will be is what we don’t know for now, but it’s actually going to flood again.”
