The FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has, once again, warned FCT residents to avoid flooded areas; to avert the dangers of falling victims of flood.
The warning is coming at the backdrop of the body of a 43-year-old man from Akoka-Edo, Edo state, Mr. Garba Joseph, being recently recovered by the Agency’s Search and Rescue team, around TradeMoore Estate, Lugbe, Abuja: after two days search from a flooded river.
The body of the victim has since been laid to rest at Lugbe cemetery by his family.
In a statement made available to Blueprint Sunday, which was signed by the PRO, Faustina Ngaha, saddened by the unfortunate incident, the Director General of FEMA Alhaji Idriss Abbas, once again, emphasised the need for residents to adhere to instructions and early warnings from relevant authorities, adding that attitudinal change is the key to reducing disasters to the barest minimum in the FCT.
Idriss decried the increasing rate of flood in the FCT, which he attributed to residents’ apathy towards government’s directives and early warnings, despite FEMA’s consistent sensitisations based on the Nigerian Metrological Agency (NIMET) and NIHSA predictions of torrential rainfall and dangers of flooding.
The FEMA DG said NIHSA’s most recent predictions has warned of torrential rainfall and floodings from August,2020 and that the Agency has been carrying out aggressive sensitisation of residents to educate them on ways to prevent the impending flood, adding that FEMA is conducting this exercise in five different indigenous languages in the FCT; using different media channels.
He said: “We recently organised a meeting with our volunteers, vanguards and divers from all the area councils within the FCT to educate them on how they can sensitise their people on how to prevent disasters to minimise loss of lives and property. We have embarked on community to community flood sensitisation campaigns in the FCT and also mounted billboards at all the flood prone points, warning off and cautioning residents from these danger areas.
“Most of the deaths we have recorded in the past from flood in the FCT were as a result of non-compliance to instructions and early warnings. What we are experiencing now is flash flood, the water builds up speedily and comes unnoticed hence very dangerous.
“Residents should desist from unwholesome environmental practices especially indiscriminate waste disposal on water ways, building on flood plains, as these could block water ways and lead to flooding.
“Community leaders, religious leaders should be responsible for sensitising their subjects, especially those who are living close to flood prone areas, to move to higher grounds to avoid being washed away by flood water, adding that relevant authorities have been on their toes evacuating refuse around the FCT, distilling drainages and expanding narrow water channels to enable free flow of water for a safer FCT.”
