Presidential C’ttee Seeks N3.4trn For Flood Control

To reduce risks and impacts of flood disasters in the country, the presidential flood control committee has proposed the sum of N3.460 trillion to tackle the menace.

The money to implement the ten strategic plans to manage floods in the country as proposed by the National Flood Management Council (NFMC), inaugurated recently by President Muhammadu Buhari.

This was made known by the minister of water resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, who also doubles as the chairman of the committee, when he briefed the press on the outcome of a comprehensive report on ‘National Strategic Plan of Action for Flood Prevention and Management’ document proposed by his team and submitted to the presidency for execution.

Adamu said flooding is the most common and expensive natural disaster in the world, and to manage it requires a large amount of money of financial investment for implementation.

The report recommended that the committee on NFMC is saddled with the responsibility of advising the President on all issues pertaining to flood, in order to declare a state of emergency based on categorization, as well as coordinate flood management activities in the country.

It is also to source and provide funding for all flood related matters, and to deal with any other matters related to flood management as may be directed by the president.

Adamu also said data acquisition for integrated flood management; coordinating multi-sectoral flood early warning system to sustain a robust environment; development capacity and flood plains management; protection of infrastructure and also optimizing benefits of flood to the national economy amongst others are part of the 10-point strategic plan to be implemented by the members of the council.

According to him “The strategic plan (Figure SP1) depicts measures necessary for the actualization of a comprehensive approach to flood risk management. The plan aims at maximizing the net benefits of flood plains, reducing loss of lives and property and thus, preserving the ecosystems and associated biodiversity within the framework of integrated water Resources Management (WRM)”.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), in 2012 reported “363 lives were lost, 5,851 injured; 3,891,314 affected, and 3,871,530 displaced due to the resulting floods in 2012; while in the 2022 flood, over 1.4million people have been displaced, 665 reported dead and thousands injured.”