By Emmanuel Abi Couson.
The Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Godwin Tepikor, has warned of major floods in thirteen Local Government Areas of Rivers State.
This was disclosed in Port Harcourt during workshop with the theme ‘Downscaling of flood early warning strategies for early actions’
He also canvassed support from the State and Local Government authorities to mitigate the effects of the flood.
On his part, the Zonal director of the Agency, Babatunde Adebiyi, said that 13 local government areas have been identified, and the agency is working to prepare them for the coming flood.
Some of the high-risk LGAs identified include Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Degema, and Ahoada East and West among others.
The agency had earlier predicted that eight local government areas of Zamfara State would be affected by moderate flooding in the 2024 rainy season.
The agency’s Director-General in Zamfara, Zubaida Umar, who disclosed this, listed the eight LGAs to include Bugundu, Gummi, Gusau, Bakura, Maradun Talata Mafara, Shinkafi, and Zurmi.
She also called on Nigerians to work together to safeguard communities at risk, protect critical infrastructures, and support what she termed uninterrupted socio-economic activities in the country, from flooding.
The Nigerian Hyrodological Services Agency (NIHSA) in the year 2024 Annual Flood Outlook, predicted that 31 states with 148 local government areas are to be within the high flood risk areas, while 35 states including FCT with 249 LGAs are considered to fall within the moderate flood risk areas, and the remaining 377 LGAs are forecasted for the low flood risk areas.
