NEMA Seeks North-east Communities’ Cooperation on Flood Control The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has urged the communities in the North Eastern part of the country to complement government’s efforts in order to reduce the impact of flooding and other disasters that may occur in their areas. NEMA Head of operations office in Gombe, Mr. Apollos Jediel, made the appeal in Bauchi at the recent retraining and inauguration of Grassroots emergency volunteer corps in Bauchi. He said the aim of the training is to impact basic skills and knowledge on disaster management to the selected volunteers drawn from Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe States. Jediel said the volunteers would be trained with disaster management concept, their responsibilities and how they can help to prevent disaster and what they can do to support themselves others and relief workers where necessary. He recalled that “flooding ravaged 23 states of the federation in 2012, and the training was necessitated going by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency’s prediction of heavy rainfall in the year and the prediction painted a clear picture of what the nation should expect this year when compared with the devastating effect of the 2012 flooding that ravaged about 23 states of the federation.” Jediel added that NEMA had engaged competent hands from the Red Cross, Civil Defense, Federal Road Safety, Fire Service and NEMA officials to deliver lectures and to train and retrain the participants who would be taught on how to prevent mitigate and respond to major hazards in their localities. The Bauchi State Chairman Relief Distribution Committee and response to emergencies, Alhaji Muhammad Inuwa Bello, said “the lesson from this workshop is to get us prepared to avoid impending losses”, and advised the communities to stop erecting houses on the floodplains and desist from dumping waste arbitrarily. Bello said Bauchi State Emergency Management Agency had already sensitised communities in all the 20 local government areas of the state on the best way to reduce the impact of flooding by advising those on the riverside areas to move to the areas that are safer and people to clean their drainages in order to allowed flood to pass.” Participants at the workshop urged NEMA to increase the number of days for such kinds of training in order to help the trainees to understand the training better so as to train their larger communities when the time comes. In a related development, in its effort to coordinate resources towards efficient and effective disaster prevention, preparedness, mitigation and response, the NEMA Gombe operational office has drilled personnel of security agencies and voluntary organisations on their roles during the event of an outbreak of any form of disaster. The Head of operation, NEMA Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe, Apollos, speaking during the emergency evacuation drill exercise in Bauchi State Secretariat, said the reason why his team was in Bauchi was to enlighten, educate and collaborate with workers on the proactive measures to be taken during disasters. He stressed that the aim of the emergency evacuation drill was to involve all stakeholders in disaster management and share their practical experience in response to disaster incidence intervention. He said NEMA has found it necessary to come up with series of programmes aimed at achieving its mission, saying that if adhered to it would go a long way in mitigating the impact of emergencies in the country. Jediel explained that incessant fire outbreaks in valued buildings in the cities have resulted in loss of lives and destruction of property worth millions of naira, saying that there is need for proactive measures in preventing, responding and mitigating the impact of such emergencies. The Head of Operation further disclosed that training of volunteers for rural areas was also going on so that they may assist during disaster in local government councils and villages. He said stakeholders are expected to contribute positively so that NEMA would develop emergency evacuation plan in preparation for the flooding and other related disasters facing the nation. He said occupants of buildings, particularly civil servants, are expected to gain more knowledge on disaster management as experts are expected to share with them the expectation of their role in case of any kind of emergency.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 15:59:44 +0000
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