Flooding: NEMA, states plan rescue strategies

The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Zubaida Umar, has directed the zonal directors of NEMA to work with State Emergency Management Agencies in prepositioning rescue equipment for immediate deployment in the event of flood in their various areas of operations.

Umar, who gave the directive at a meeting in Abuja, also ordered the zonal directors to report these activities to the Emergency Coordination Centre that has been opened at NEMA headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory.

A statement issued by the Head of the Press Unit at NEMA, Manzo Ezekiel, said the DG convened the meeting to strengthen flood response and operational readiness of the agency for disasters across the country.

The meeting, which was held in Abuja also reviewed the status of the flood situation in Nigeria and the response carried out so far as well as commitment by the stakeholders especially the State Emergency Management Agencies to incidents in their areas.

The statement read in part, “In her remarks, Umar directed the zonal directors to strengthen synergy with the SEMAs in prepositioning rescue equipment and facilities available for immediate deployment in the event of flood in their various areas of responsibilities and report same to the Emergency Coordination Centre that has been opened at NEMA headquarters in Abuja.

“Moreover, she harped on the imperatives for timely response to save lives and property, adding that rapid assessments must also be conducted of flood incidents to determine any further action to be taken towards supporting the affected persons.”

In addition, the DG said the zonal directors should leverage existing partnerships with stakeholders, particularly the military to request for the support of their Disaster Response Units to deploy necessary resources and equipment for search and rescue operations.

Umar also held an interactive meeting with the general staff in Abuja, where she informed the technical officers at the headquarters to brace up for possible deployment across the states to beef up response interventions to overwhelming flood incidents.

NEMA recently activated its zonal, territorial, and operation offices to work with various State Emergency Management Agencies to carry out rescue operations and conduct assessments of the situation.

After the activation, NEMA search and rescue officers in the zones were deployed across the states with flood incidents. The officers have supported the states in coordinating rescue operations with SEMAs and other stakeholders.

With increasing flood incidents, Umar further inaugurated the Emergency Operations Centre at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja to monitor and coordinate the timely deployment of resources for search and rescue in support of the zonal and territorial offices nationwide.

In addition to the EOC, the NEMA boss also activated the Situation Room at NEMA headquarters for flood data collection, processing, and dissemination of authentic information from incident sites.

On July 8, 2024, The According reported that the Federal Government declared that no fewer than 10 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, had either experienced various degrees of flooding or recorded casualties as rains intensified.

The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof Joseph Utsev, who dropped the red alert during a press briefing in Abuja, warned that 21 more states might suffer flooding.