The Director-General, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Dr Hajiya Zubaida Umar has revealed that so far, 1,061,254 Nigerians have been affected by the flood, 634,035 displaced and 94,741 houses submerged across the country this year.
She warned that 16 local government areas of Kebbi are expected to be hit by floods this year.
The NEMA Chief spoke at the “2024 Downscaling of Flood Early Warning Strategies for Early Actions,” held in Birnin Kebbi on Thursday.
Mrs Umar, who was represented by Dr Daniel Obot, the Director of Disaster Risk Reduction at the agency, said the early warning strategies were to integrate direct risk communication and engagement approaches to disseminating warnings for early actions at the state, local government and community levels.
”The rainfall and flood advisories contained in the Season Climate Prediction (SCP), and Annual Flood Outlooks (AFO) of Nigeria, Meteorological Agency and Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), respectively, have provided us with vulnerable early warning alerts.
”Consequently, all of us are expected to take action that drastically reduces the adverse impacts of floods on the entire lands and the Nigerian population, especially for the most vulnerable persons living in communities identified to be at risk of flooding,” she said
