Flood: SEMA, stakeholders visit flood prone areas in Kaduna
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/08/flood-sema-stakeholders-visit-flood.html
State Emergency Management Agency(SEMA) and various stakeholders on
Wednesday visited flood prone areas within the Kaduna metropolis to plan
new ways of mitigating floods in the state.
Maimunatu Abubakar, Executive Secretary of the agency, while leading
stakeholders on assessment of the areas said the state government was
partnering with stakeholders to ensure that flooding was put under
control.
According to her, the collaboration became necessary because of the
realisation that the state government could not manage disaster alone.
She said: ‘’We are here to do a holistic assessment, resource
mapping, risk analysis and have an overview of preparedness of the state
to manage any form of disaster.
“We are trying to mitigate the impacts of both man-made and natural disasters on the people.
‘’We want to help reduce the rate of mortality and morbidity that is always associated with disaster.
“We have done a holistic assessment in areas that are usually worse
hit by flood; we believe the state government and stakeholders are doing
their best but we can do better.” she said.
“We are going back to the drawing board to do a holistic planning; to
ensure that the state is well-prepared to effectively and efficiently
respond to any form of emergency disaster”.
” We have been witnessing floods but we want to ensure that we reduce the impact to the bearest minimum.”
“We have been taking some steps ahead of time by doing monthly
sanitation to clean our drainage system, flood sensitisation campaign
and stakeholders meeting; as part of our proactive efforts to reduce
disasters.
Umar Hairau, Director, flood and disaster, Kaduna Environmental
Protection Authority(KEPA) assured that with the new initiative floods
would be a thing of the past in the state.
“We do not want flood to occur again;we have heard contributions from
communities and have seen lapses which we will have meetings with
stakeholders to come out with a blueprint on ways to assist the
communities on averting floods.”
The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that present at the tour were
the Ministry of Environment, KEPA, Kaduna State Urban Planning
Development Agency (KASUPDA), Red cross, fire service and other NGO’s.
The communities visited were Ungwar Romi, Gonin gora, Kamazou, Ungwar rimi, and Tudun wada.