Flooding: NEMA says five Gombe LGAs at risk, calls for preventive measures
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has urged stakeholders in Gombe State to take appropriate measures to mitigate impact of flooding in the state during this year’s rainy season.
The agency further disclosed that five local government areas of the state are predicted to be affected by moderate flooding in the 2024 rainy season.
The agency’s director-general, Zubaida Umar, stated this in Gombe on Tuesday at the sensitisation programme for the 2024 down-scaling of flood early warning strategies for early actions.
Read Also: Air Force Chief Boosts Morale with New Vehicles for Warrant Officers
Ms Umar, represented by the director, Audit, NEMA, Mr Garba Mohammed, said the affected LGAs include Dukku, Kwami, Yamaltu/Deba, Gombe and Funakaye.
“These LGAs are under moderate flood risk areas and are already listed in the earlier NEMA communication to the state government.
“This underscores this inauguration in Gombe State today. Accordingly, I call for support in this initiative of downscaling flood early warning and risk mitigation messages to the grassroots,” she said.
Umar said that the rainfall and flood advisories contained in the Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) and Annual Flood Outlook (AFO) of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency and Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) respectively, had provided stakeholders with valuable early warning alerts.
She urged the state government and all stakeholders in the 11 LGAs of the state to take actions that would drastically reduce the adverse impacts of floods on the entire landscape and the Nigerian population.
The dg also called for actions to ensure that the most vulnerable persons living in communities identified to be at risk of flooding were protected.
On his part, the Deputy Governor of Gombe State, Mr Manassah Jatau said the state would take action to carry the sensitisation not to the five identified LGAs at risk of flooding but to the entire state.
Jatau appealed to residents and communities to ensure that they don’t dump their waste in drainages which he said could block water ways and cause havoc.
“Let me thank NEMA because apart from this very timely educative and protective lectures, it has come to aid of Gombe State more than ten times, when the state experienced natural disasters in one way or the other,” he said.
In an interview with journalists, Mr Abdullahi Abdullahi, the Executive Secretary of the state Emergency Management Agency said massive state-wide sensitisation would commence immediately after the Sallah festivities based on NEMA’s early warning.
Abdullahi said so far, the rains witnessed across the state had not had negative impact on the environment and people, but “the windstorm that came with the rains has affected houses.
“In Kaltungo and Shongom LGAs, windstorm has so far destroyed 347 houses and we have reported to the relevant agencies for action,” he said.
Abdullahi appealed to residents not to engage in acts that could lead to flooding during the wet season.
