Government should find shorter ways of evacuating people--Dr. Idris

Aeriel View of the flood

Governments at all levels have again been told to take swift actions to ensure that no live is lost in the flood disaster that is said to be imminent.

The Head of Department, Geography, Nasarawa State University, Dr. Nasiru Idris who gave the advice in a phone interview said the best thing to do is to urgently evacuate people living on flood plains and riverine areas.

Dr. Idris

He said other measures to be taken include the intensification of public awareness via radio and television, to educate people on how to secure themselves. 

“As the water is rising seriously due to high precipitation, people around the coastal areas and flood plains are advised to evacuate to safe places. Government should look for shorter ways of evacuating people. Disseminate information. People should immediately evacuate the riverine communities”, he said.

The don also advised on proactive measure of flood control, requiring governments to build artificial reservoirs for channeling excess water during periods of high precipitation, thus reducing the flood.

He said, “They should be flood control measures. Government should provide an embankment that will serve as flood control anytime there is rise in water level”.

Dr. Idris spoke after confirming the flood alert from both the NEMA and the Niger Basin Development Authority.

He said last Sunday; “According to the spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA as well as the Niger Basin Authority, instruction received is that there is a serious rise in water level along the River Niger and there is likely possibility of a recap of what happened in 2012, that destroyed lives and property.

“As a result of that, they are alerting communities to evacuate to safer places”.

State governments have been advised to urgently build artificial reservoirs for storing excess water in a swift action to reduce the impact of the flood being predicted.

The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, while unveiling the 2016 annual flood outlook predicted flash flood in Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Sokoto, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Makurdi and Yola, and advised governments of the affected states to urgently build artificial flood management reservoirs.

 The 2012 flood disaster in Nigeria was termed the worst in 40 years, with 30 out of the 36 states in the country affected, killing about 363 people and displacing over 2.1 million people.