The Country Director, Centre for Development and Support Initiative, Mrs. Mina Margret Ogbanga has called for the collective effort of everybody in Rivers to reduce the impact of flooding in the state.

She told our  correspondent during an interview that flooding is a natural phenomenon which would certainly take place but the damage could be reduced if adequate control measures were put in place.

Reacting to the recent predictions by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) that this year would witness heavy storms and flooding, she said. “NEMA’s announcement calls for order. It needs to be taken very seriously because flooding will take place whether we like it or not”.

She advised that various groups of people in the state and the entire country should be made to understand how they could prevent the flooding of their immediate environment by making environmental issues so simple that people could relate with them.

“People want to know the breakdown of activities they can carry out which will meet the needs of their environment. Make them know the importance of doing simple things like clearing their drainages and gutters.

“A lot has been said about climate change, Greenhouse gases, Ozone depletion simplify these issue and let the people know in simple terms how they can contribute to these problems and what they should do to mitigate the effects.

She said the town planning structures of the state should be implemented to guide development and prevent people from erecting structures at wrong places, adding that when the town planning structures were not adhered to, it could result to a lot of environmental problems like flooding.

She explained that when waters from the rains do not drain easily due to the blockage of the water channels by illegal structures, the waters would accumulate somewhere and cause a lot of havoc for the people living within the environment.

Mrs. Ogbanga therefore challenged everybody – builders, students, researchers, academia, civil society organisations, NGOs, various levels of government to contribute their quotas towards ensuring a flood free environment in the state and Nigeria.

“Everybody has a role to play. You as an individual what are you doing about your own immediate environment? Are you throwing dirts to the gutters? Are you planting trees around your environment to guard against heavy flood?

“You as a teacher in a school, do you educate the young ones on how they can protect their environment? She queried, adding that government should implement the existing environmental laws and make people abide by them.

Commenting on the Federal Government’s plan to plant 37 million trees in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) the Country Director said that was a laudable project but advised that the N5 billion mapped out for the project should be used judiciously and the right people should be engaged to carry out the project.

“We need to have the right people carrying out the activities. There needs to be a peer review mechanism, a monitoring structure to be able to even show that what is to be done, has been done”, she advised.

Calista Ezeaku