The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has advised residents of the FCT against ignoring early flood warnings from the weather forecast agencies.
The director-general of the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Alhaji Abba Idriss, gave the advice at the 2022 FEMA Annual Review and Preparedness Meeting with over 250 local divers, community vanguards, flood rescue teams, and 50 town criers.
Idriss said that the meeting was coming at a time when flood warnings from the weather forecast agencies, especially Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), were issuing serious flood alerts almost daily.
He said the rising water levels in the nation’s major rivers in the country, especially River Niger and River Benue, coupled with the threats coming from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon were issues of great concern.
The FEMA bosd emphasised the need for residents to abide by and obey the early warnings which are being issued to them from time to time through conventional and social media.
He said that as soon as the agencies get a flood early warning, they will disseminate the information so that people will take advantage of it.
Idriss, therefore, urged residents to ensure that they get information about the roads they will pass through before leaving their homes, offices, and markets.
“The reason why we call for this meeting is first to alert our local divers, volunteers, vanguards, and town criers on the likelihood of flooding.
“Secondly, is to call on the residents of the Federal Capital Territory to be on their alert as well that all is not well yet. We have to be watchful, we have to keep observing those environmental laws and we also have to abide by the building code.
“FCT residents must also ensure that they don’t block drainages, avoid building on the waterways and also avoid driving on running water. People shouldn’t undermine water they see on the road to think that they have a high capacity vehicle that moves on running water,” he said.
Earlier, Mrs. Florence Wenegieme, the Director, Forecasting Response Mitigation at FEMA, explained that the event was organised to review with stakeholders especially the local divers, volunteers, vanguards, local emergency committee, and town criers.
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