Following intense rainfall and rises in water level, the National Emergency Management Agency has advised communities along the river Niger to evacuate immediately to safer grounds over the likelihood of floods that may occur at any moment from now.
The Director General of NEMA,
Muhammad Sani-Sidi, who gave the advice said the agency received alerts of the
flood from information given by authorities in the Republic of Niger that the
present water level in the river had reached a point that might result in the
flood that could be compared with the unfortunate experience of 2012.
He said “Niger Basin Authority (NBA)
notified Nigeria that rainy season, which started in the Middle Niger (Burkina
Faso and Niger Republic) in June 2016, has led to a gradual rise of the level
of River Niger in Niamey, Niger Republic. This high level of water in Niger
Republic is already spreading to Benin Republic, and invariably, to Nigeria.”
He further said the level of water
in all the hydrological monitoring stations across the country, as at Friday,
August 5, had already reached alarming values requiring prompt and coordinated
action of all governments and stakeholders.
“If the heavy rainfall continues in intensity and duration within these regions of the River Niger, it is imminent that flood situation similar to that of the year 2012 may occur,” the agency’s Head of Media and Public Relations quoted Mr. Sani-Sidi as saying.
The director general then called on all stakeholders to take necessary actions in line with their various mandates.
The states and local government are to ensure observance with the threat in order to avert imminent loss of lives and properties that might certainly arise in the event of flood, he said.
He also urged the states to utilize the flood vulnerability maps given to them earlier by NEMA to identify safer grounds for temporary shelters in time of evacuation as well as reviewing all their contingency plans.
He identified the states along the
river Niger belts as being the most vulnerable as well as those along its major
tributaries that includes Benue river belts , the confluence states and
downstream to the Atlantic Coast.
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