Alert: Drought to Affect Northern States -NEMA

NEMA Sends Early drought Warning to States
….Lists 11 States that may be affected

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has issued an early warning alert on the prospect of drought in some Northern states just as the cessation of rainfall is being witnessed in some parts of the country.

The Director General of the agency, AVM Mohammed Audu-Bida (rtd) disclosed this at the weekend after a quarterly meeting of the zonal coordinators of NEMA in Abuja.

The NEMA boss said 11 states in the Northern part of the country have been sent early warning letters, detailing local government areas that may be affected and the population of the people in the areas.

Mohammed Audu-Bida listed the states to be affected to include Sokoto, Katsina, zamfara, kebbi, Jigawa and Kano in the North-West and Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi and Adamawa States in the North-Eastern part of the country.

Audu-Bida said the drought warning alert by the agency became necessary as a precautionary measure that would guide the states to make adequate planning including sensitization of farmers, contingency stockpiling and networking with focal institutions for effective mitigation on likely negative consequences of the climate condition.

The NEMA boss regretted that few states took the advice of the agency early in the year when it (NEMA) sent the last early warning to governors on likely flooding before the commencement of the rainy season that was heavy and erratic in various part of the country. He said consequences of inaction badly affected cities and town in coastal areas with the floods rendering over 150,000 Nigerians homeless and properties worth millions of Naira lost.

Audu-Bida said the agency apart from relying on relevant institution like NIMET in whether forecasting, it is equipped with latest remote sensing technology to forecast climatic changes and detect disaster prone spots. The state-of-the- arts equipments that use satellite technology include Geographic Information System (GIS) Laboratory and Corspas-SarSat in the Mission Control Centre (MCC) at the agency Headquarters in Abuja.

The agency which recently increased its zonal office in the country to seven with creation of Abuja Office to cater for neighbouring states of Kogi, Niger and Kwara has increased monthly subvention to the zones just as it givens zonal coordinators executive powers and independence to initiate programmes and respond promptly to emergency situations in their zones towards disaster risk reduction.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Head of Press and Public Relations
GSM: 0803-5555-999