The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Nigeria believes the Federal and State governments are better prepared to avert a humanitarian crisis after recent flood alerts.
The Director General of NEMA, Sani Sidi, expressed hopes of government’s readiness during an emergency humanitarian coordination forum held on Tuesday.
At the forum were different agencies of government and some international agencies and talks focused on contingency plans in response to the flood alert.
Mr Sidi said the early warning provided must be matched with early action.
Some of the devastation left behind by the flood disaster that occurred in 2012 were considered and in a bid to avert recurrence, the forum participants worked on an action plan.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had issued a flood alert few days ago.
Charting a course for discussions at the meeting, the Director General of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, Moses Beckley, read out figures his agency had in relation to the flood of 2012.
A presentation was also made on the flood alert, the contingency plan that has been put in place and the role of the different agencies involved.
The Director General of NEMA said a lot of work was being done with the state governments to avert humanitarian crisis.
A few things that have been made clear at the meeting was that time was short, local action was very important and that just cleaning drainages would go a long way to ensure that the coming flood would not lead to humanitarian crisis.
Days after the alerts were issued, the Kano State Relief And Emergency Agency (SARERA), confirmed that at least 5,300 houses have been destroyed by flood in six local government areas of Kano State.
According to the Executive Secretary of the Agency, Mr Aliyu Bashir, the affected local government areas include, Bebeji, Dawakin Kudu, Kiru Shanono, Bagwai and Garun Mallam.
Mr Bashir said over 2,300 houses were affected in Dawakin Kudu, while about 600 houses in each of the remaining five areas were also destroyed by the flood.