The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has said that experts from its agency will be deployed to all the states of the federation to downscale early warning messages.
The Director-General of NEMA, Mr Mustapha Ahmed, made the disclosure during the flag-off of early warning measures to stakeholders in Uyo on Wednesday Akwa Ibom.
Ahmed said the agency would work in partnership with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA).
He expressed confident that the initiative would enable all actors take risk informed decisions against future flood occurrence, support disaster risk management and engender sustainable socio- economic growth in Nigeria.
“I am happy that we are here with experts from NIHSA and NiMet to support this initiative of the downscaling of disaster early warning measures to grassroots for effective life-saving early actions during the rainy season.
“Subsequently, we are deploying some experts from NEMA, NiMet and NIHSA to all the states of the federation and the FCT to downscale and take the early warning message to all the relevant end users across socio-economic sectors,” Ahmed said.
The DG said that the agency had written to all the state governors to draw their attention to imminent floods and associated secondary hazards during the rainy season to avoid 2022 flood disaster.
The director general commended Akwa Ibom Government for the collaboration with the agency to ensure effective flood disaster management.
“We are flagging off this event here in Uyo in consideration of the existing mutual support and collaboration between NEMA and the Akwa Ibom government.
“I am glad to announce that we have gone a long way in the process of setting up NEMA Operations Office here in Uyo to advance a new vista of collaboration and to take disaster risk management to the next level,” he said.
In his remarks, Gov. Umo Eno, of Akwa Ibom, who flagged-off the early warning measures in the state, promised to sustain the good working relationship with NEMA, already started by the previous administration of the state.
“Previous administration have established good working relationship with NEMA; we will continue to build on that to prevent any future flood disaster in our state,” Eno said.
In his remarks, Prof. Mansur Matazu, Director General of Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) said early warnings must be matched by early action to avoid disasters and losses.
Matazu called on states to promote inter-agency collaborations for actualising early action for disasters risk preparedness and reduction.
He pledged that the NiMET would continue to invest in the production of early warnings that were timely, reliable and actionable. (NAN)
