NEMA Records Low Flood Disaster In Gombe

The National Emergency
Management Agency (NEMA) has said recently that the agency recorded low rate of flooding in 2013 compared to previous years.
The Head of Operations, Gombe Operation Office, Mr Jediel Apollos, made this known in Bauchi while addressing participants at a one day workshop organised by NEMA for stakeholders in the zone.
Apollos said: “You will all agree with me that the effect of flood disasters in the recent past has reduced significantly in frequency and intensity compared with the experiences in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
“Inevitably, however, communities are becoming more resilient as a result of the paradigm shift from disaster response to disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness.
“In the last four years, our agency had entrenched a system of creating necessary awareness for flood prevention, mitigation and preparedness, which yielded positive results as the menace of flooding was brought to its barest minimum.’’
The officer urged stakeholders, especially state emergency management agencies, to use underlying causes of flood to develop techniques of prevention, mitigation and preparedness, to avert such disasters.
He quoted NIMET predictions as indicating that 2014 would witness less flood disasters because of proactive measures against heavy rains, which had become evident in three states.
Tthe Head of Operations, Bauchi State SEMA, Alhaji Inuwa Bello, had earlier charged the stakeholders to sensitise communities, especially those living around flood-prone areas.
Bello also urged the participants to use the knowledge acquired at the workshop to curb anticipated disasters in their respective areas, this year.