Kaduna prepares to tackle impending flood

The Executive Secretary of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Ishaku Dogo Makama said that the state was also making provision for temporary shelter for people living in flood prone areas par adventure the flood occurs.Makama said that the state government has constituted a committee comprising of SEMA, KASUPDA, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of health, Nigerian […]

The Executive Secretary of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Ishaku Dogo Makama said that the state was also making provision for temporary shelter for people living in flood prone areas par adventure the flood occurs.
Makama said that the state government has constituted a committee comprising of SEMA, KASUPDA, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of health, Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police, Civil Defence, Red Cross, KAPWA and Ministry of Works to handle flood issues in the state.
The committee according to him has gone round all the flood prone areas after which sub-committees including sensitization and advocacy, camp management and evacuation sub-committees were constituted in a bid to mitigate re-occurrence of flood.
According to him, the sensitization and advocacy sub-committee would go round to meet district heads of flood prone areas, discuss with them on the way forward based on last year experience.
While he urged people staying close to rivers to be on the alert, he noted that last year, 17 local government areas of the state were affected by flood. “We are doing our best to make people know that this disaster is going to happen so that they can move before,” he said.
The camp management sub-committee he also stated was working on providing temporary place of refuge for people who may be affected by flood. “In spite of the fact that we have been telling people in flood prone areas to move but they don’t want to, we have located some schools on higher ground and which have open and big fields where we can make temporary shelter. We have identified all the places and we are waiting for the state government to assist us with materials to build temporary shelter, we will also want to purchase tents, so that in case of any occurrence, the people can have a place to stay temporarily,” he explained.
He noted that the evacuation sub-committee would handle opening of all the drainages to enable free flow of water as a way of mitigating flood.
Reacting to a report published last week where residents of Kigo extension in Kaduna, a flood prone area, doubted prediction of flood by NIMET and other agencies; Makama said that there would be flood in Kaduna based on the experience of last year and following NIMET’s 2013 seasonal rainfall prediction and the recent prediction by the Ministry of Environment.
“The people are not saying the truth, there is going to be flood because we have gotten the alert and the Ministry of Environment had recently noted that 14 northern states within one week will be affected by flood, with Kaduna being one of them. We advise them to move away from such areas and or be on the alert in case of any eventuality,” he stressed.