The Nasarawa State government has activated necessary crisis management mechanism in a bid to mitigate the impact of flood following the impending release of water from the Lago Dam in Cameroon.
The director general of the State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Barrister Zachary Allumaga, told newsmen in Lafia yesterday that the state government has put desk officers on high alert in local government areas designated as flood red zones.
Recall that Nigeria’s top emergency Agency had listed Nasarawa among the 11 states that were likely to be affected following the release of water from the Lago Dam.
Other states that may be hit by flood include Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Anambra, Enugu, Edo, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa.
Barrister Allumaga said the state government has already activated its evacuation plans to relocate people in the downstream in the five local government areas that may be affected by the impending disaster.
He gave the names of the local government areas to include Doma, Awe, Nassarawa, Toto and Obi.
He said work is currently going on to make Internally Displaced Persons’ Camps habitable in the face of the impending emergency to provide temporary shelter to those who may lose their homes.
He also revealed that the agency has deployed five speed boats to the flood prone local government areas for evacuation of people from riverine communities to the already identified high grounds.
He said, “The agency is appealing to riverine communities to detach from unwarranted sentiments of ancestral home and take necessary steps to save their lives and loved ones as well as their property.
“These measures become necessary to avert colossal loss of lives and property as we have recorded in the 2022 flood episode.
“As included in the mandate of the Agency, it saddles with the responsibility to prevent, mitigate disasters through awareness creation, evacuation of victims and provision of relief materials for victims of disasters.
“In view of this, earlier this year at the commencement of rainy season, we have embarked on sensitisation of communities living in the fringes of River Benue and other flood prone local government areas to remind them of the eminent danger posed by flood so as not to farm or build on water ways.
“Other means of awareness creation on the danger of flood exploited by the agency are: press conferences, press releases, interviews and jingles.
“We, therefore want to appeal that the chairmen of local government areas, overseers of development areas, traditional and religious leaders in the flood prone communities to join force to prevail on their people to move to the higher grounds starting from this week to avert impending damage by the released of water from Lago Dam.”
