Forum Wants FG To Enforce Land Use, Building Codes

A group, National Consultative Forum on 2013 Flood Prevention, has urged the Federal Government to ensure strict enforcement of environmental laws, land use Planning, development control and building codes in Nigeria.

A communiqué from the group made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt, to ensure effective municipal waste management to avoid blockage of the drainage system in their domains.

In the communiqué, the group whose focus is on 2013 flood prevention, mitigation preparedness and response has urged the federal government to prioritise the dredging of the Niger and Benue Rivers to avert disaster and stressed that the dredging of the rivers would reduce the situation and increase river capacity in a flood situation. According to the communiqué “The federal ministry of water resources should facilitate construction of Structures like buffer dams, dykes, levees, barriers and flood diversion channels to prevent flooding. “River Basin Development Authorities should ensure effective drainage management, while state governments should develop evacuation plans to facilitate the evacuation of informal settlements from flood plains”, the group posited.

It further urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to liaise with technological-based organizations for proper deployment and utilization of appropriate technologies in Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR). The communiqué also said in order to improve NEMA’s coordination in disaster management, it should strenghten its capacity in humanitarian coordination, partnership, advocacy and information management and that response strategies should be developed and used by relevant bodies to ensure adequate response.

Corlins Walter