By Miriam Humbe, Abuja
Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed on Thursday said that his Agency desired that early warning alerts were matched with appropriate early actions especially at the community level.
The NEMA DG said this on Thursday at the public presentation of the 2023 Climate-Related Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Strategies for Nigeria document in Abuja.
Ahmed urged State Governments yet to establish Local Emergency Management Committees (LEMCs) in their respective Local Government Areas to do so, and also advised the public to imbibe attitudinal change towards disaster risk reduction and take serious, all advisories released by relevant authorities.
He said: “In NEMA, we believe that early warning must be matched with early action.
“Therefore, we have written letters and attached this document for dispatch to all the 36 State Governments and the FCT Administration with specific mention of LGAs at risk and actions that are expected to be taken by responsible authorities.
“We have also produced flood risk maps of areas at risk and uploaded on our official website and social media platforms for greater access by the public.
“NEMA has also commenced public sensitization through placement of flood early warning jingles, special discussions and advocacy across the states.”
Recall that after the public presentation of the 2023 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) by NiMet on 24th January, 2023 and Annual Flood Outlook (AFO) by NIHSA on 17th February, 2023, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) convened a technical meeting to review the two forecast documents.
The technical meeting was attended by experts from relevant stakeholder organizations that thoroughly appraised the risk implications of the forecasts and developed an early warning document based on thematic sectors covered by both NIHSA and NIMET.
Ahmed said that the 2023 Climate-related Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Strategies was presented based on this year’s SCP and AFO as produced by NIMET and NIHSA respectively.
He said: “This document is expected to aid responsible organizations carry out preparedness and mitigation actions to safeguard lives, livelihoods, properties and the environment against hydro meteorological hazards in Nigeria during the 2023 rainy season and beyond.”
He highlighted excerpts from the SCP which predicted rainfall onset to be earlier than the long term average in most parts of the country, and indicated rainfall amounts range to be average and above average during the year.
He said the exception to these were for parts of Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, Kaduna and the FCT that are likely to observe below-average rainfall.
Ahmed reminded his audience that States expected to record rainfall amounts of 2700mm and above were Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom, Delta and Cross River.
He said: “Similarly, the 2023 AFO revealed that a total of 66 Local Government Areas (LGAs) are at high flood risk in the months of April to June; 148 LGAs in July to September and 100 LGAs in the months of October and November.
“In addition, a total of 41 LGAs fall within the moderate flood risk areas in the months of April to June; 199 LGAs in the months of July to September and 72 LGAs in the months of October and November.
“This year’s forecast has indicated that there is a high risk of coastal flooding due to expected rise in sea level and tidal surge that may negatively impact agriculture, human settlements and transportation in Bayelsa, Delta, Lagos and Rivers States.
“Flash and urban floods are also forecasted over many cities and towns due to poor drainage systems and the lack of compliance to town planning and environmental regulations.
“The forecasts have provided the much insights into what to expect ahead of this rain season.
“The reality is that this year may witness floods similar to what occurred last year if not more. You may recall that last year’s floods resulted in 665 deaths and injury to 3,181 persons nationwide.
“A total of 4,476,867 persons were affected; 2,437,411 persons displaced, about 944,989 farmlands were damaged and 355,986 houses were partially or totally destroyed by floods.”
He said that since the release of the forecasts, NEMA had continued to engage relevant stakeholders to explore ways to mitigate against the risk of the predicted floods and other related hazards throughout the 2023 rainy season.
He said: “It is in line with this that we are here today to formally present to the public the 2023 Climate-related Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Strategies.
“The objective is to highlight the predictions of the year as contained in SCP and AFO including associated risks with recommendation of actions required to mitigate against identified hazards and provide appropriate early warning messages for public sensitization.”
In a goodwill message, NiMet’s Director General, Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu who doubles as Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the World Meteorological Organisation, (WMO), said that the Early Warnings For All Initiative (EW4All) was formally launched by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General in November 2022 at the COP-27 event in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
He congratulated the Director General, Mustapha Habib Ahmed, the Management and Staff of NEMA for the timely production of “this very important Early Action document.”
Prof. Matazu said that the Initiative called for the whole world to be covered by an early warning system by the end of 2027.
He said: “For us in Nigeria, we have been involved in Early Warnings for All Nigerians for a long time and each year we strive for improvement.”
He said that for this year, NiMet released its Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) for 2023 as early as the 24th of January 2023, highlighting vital Weather and Climate information that may affect socio-economic activities in the following Sectors during the year: Air, land, and water transportation; agriculture, water resources, disaster management and mitigation, health, tourism, sports, power & energy etc.
The forecast information provided in the document included the on-set and cessation dates of the 2023 rainy season; length of the cropping season; the total amount of rainfall expected in all the 774 Local Government Areas of the Country; temperature forecast, (January to April) as well as Malaria and Meningitis vigilance forecast.
The socio-economic implications of the predictions were also presented in the publication.
The release of the 2023 SCP was closely followed by the release of the Annual Flood Outlook (AFO) by Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) which relied on the SCP as input into the production of the AFO.
Prof. Matazu said that the document unveiled relied on both AFO and NiMet SCP, as a confirmation that Nigeria was not only ready for the UN Early Warning for All but also synergizing for Early Action for Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation.
He said: “Climate change and its attendant impacts are no longer fairy tales but they are here for us to see.”
According to UNICEF report in 2022, more than 2.5 million people in Nigeria were in need of humanitarian assistance, of which 60 percent were children – who were also at increased risk of water borne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the most severe flooding witnessed by Nigeria in the past decade.
NiMet DG said: “That was quite an alarming statistic if you ask me. Also disheartening was the revelation by the federal government through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development that Nigeria lost over 6.68 billion dollars to last year’s flooding disaster.
He said all these negative statistics further buttressed the impact of Climate related disasters as well as underscoring the imperativeness of the continued synergy among NiMet, NIHSA and NEMA.
Prof. Matazu commended the strategic partnerships of all the stakeholders present at the event and charged them all to remain unflinching “as we continue to sensitize Nigerians on weather and climate related issues via our different products and services.
“I also urge all actors within the Disaster Risks Reduction and Management Value Chain to uptake these Early Warning and Early Action documents, for continuous Early Action in their respective domains in order to avert losses, promote sustainable development and improve livelihoods.
He said that the NiMet would continue to monitor and provide in-season updates on the predictions and called on Stakeholders for synergy and collaborations in disseminating these Early Warning Information to all Nigerians.
Present at the occasion were the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouq who was ably represented, the Director General Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), and his team, the Director General Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and his team and representatives of numerous partner Agencies of NEMA, its directors and members of the Press.
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