States, Communities Brace Up As NIHSA Warns On Coming Floods

Flood endemic states and communities in the Niger Delta have continued to take preemptive measures to secure their settlements as the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency warned that more and more communities along River Benue and the lower Niger could be submerged following the release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon.
Already some communities along the Benue and Niger Rivers have been submerged with thousands of people made homeless. According to MIHSA, states that are at risk of this year’s flooding, according to MIHSA are Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Edo, Enugu, Anambra, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River.
Meanwhile the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has started setting up emergency shelters to accommodate people that may be displaced by the floods.
The Managing Director of the commission, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku said the commission was building six multi-purpose emergency shelters in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states for Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in the event of flood in the Niger Delta region.
Ogbuku, who spoke during a Press Conference at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, said the Commission was taking steps to ameliorate the impact of the perennial flood in the region.
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer observed that the project was conceived as a response to the frequent flooding challenges faced by Niger Deltans. He noted that facilities at the emergency shelter would include essential amenities such as a school, hospital, cafeteria, police post, and recreation center, which would provide comprehensive support to the communities in times of distress.
He said, “We have six of these facilities currently under construction in Otuokpoti and Odi, in Bayelsa State, while the ones in Delta State are being built in Patani and Ozorro and another two in Rivers State.”
Concerned about the imminent flooding, the members of the Warri correspondents’ chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, MUJ, in Delta State have asked the state government and other stakeholders to prepare for the flooding and evacuation of residents.
The Chapel called on the state Government to “be proactive in saving the lives and properties of her citizens, particularly in the coastal communities”.
It said the state government could not afford to take the warning by MIHSA lightly as NIHSA listed Delta State among the 20 states that will experience severe flooding before the end of the year.
The chapel therefore urged the government “to expedite action towards evacuating residents living in flood-prone areas in the state”.
The call was contained in the communique issued at the end of the chapel’s congress in Warri. It was jointly signed by Odeya Ogbetuo, Elo-Oghene Edremoda, Okpare Onojeghen and Onyeka Meluwa.
The chapel also called on residents of communities along the bank of River Niger to be vigilant and ready to be evacuated.
It emphasized that the N39.62billion ecological fund and the recently released N3billion approved to each state and the Federal Capital Territory by the Federal Government in the country to tackle all forms of natural disasters, including flooding, be judiciously utilised.
“The N3 billion recently released to states to tackle flooding should be expended for such purpose,” the chapel reiterated.