FEMA set to tackle FCT flood

The Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has expressed concern over the increase in the water level in River Niger.

Consequently, the administration has initiated discussions with stakeholders on flood mitigation and response coordination.

Director General, FEMA, Abbas Idriss stated that information available from the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agencies (NIHSA), from its daily monitoring of flood water level of River Niger at Lokoja revealed that water level since 8th July, 2019 has exceeded the level recorded in 2012 and 2018 after a comparative analysis of same period. 

Idriss stated this at the emergency stakeholder’s forum on flood mitigation and response coordination organised by the agency Thursday in Abuja.

  He said recent flood incidents in the FCT are greater threats of further occurrence as alerted by flood forecast agencies, giving serious cause for concern.  

He said: “This information is coming on the heels of its 2019 Annual Flood Outlook which declared 74 local government areas in the country as having a high probability of experiencing flood, while 600 local government areas are under threat of flood”.

The DG further stated that given the proximity of the FCT to Lokoja and the increasing water level of River Niger, the consequences are predictable, especially looking back at the 2012 flood incident.

Idriss expressed concern that residents and communities continue to take sensitisation messages against such practices with a pinch of salt adding that they will succeed in stemming out public acts that heighten flood risks.

He said the forum would provide them with another opportunity to inject new ideas not only to cope effectively with the impending flood but to reduce it to the barest minimum.

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