Economic Confidential, September, 2009

NATIONAL

Flood Renders 150,000 Nigerians Homeless - NEMA

… Intensifies Distribution of Relief Materials

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has disclosed that more Nigerians are continued to be displaced by floods due to torrential rainfalls and blockages of waterways in various communities at rural and urban areas of the country.

The flooding this year from reports so far received from the six zonal coordinators spread in each geopolitical zone have affected at least 150,000 people who were either displaced or have their mean of livelihood destroyed like farms products. Some villages have been submerged while corpses were exhumed from graves.

Recently the Director General of NEMA directed all the zonal officers and their staffs to move to affected areas to provide necessary relief materials to the victims. Most of the relief materials are in trucks of food items, building materials, clothing and medications.

The Director General said since July, the agency has continued to alert states and relevant agencies on impending flood for adequate preparedness to tackle its effect on the peole. He said the increase in the amount of rainfall was not peculiar to any particular part of the country due to variations in the weather pattern of the country caused by climate change.

According to a report received from NEMA Zonal Coordinator North-West, more victims are registered at camps established for victims in Tureta, Kebbe and Tambuwal communities in Sokoto State. The Zonal Coordinator, Mr. Mustafha Sulaiman said that the agency is collaborating with government of Sokoto and Kaduna in establishment of camps for displaced people. He said the flood is also wrecking havoc in Zamfara and Kebbi States. He said so far the agency in the zone had almost exhausted all its relief materials in its warehouses since it started distributing them to victims. He said there is a joint cooperation of Police, Civil defence, Red Cross and Volunteers in assisting victims at the camps and the areas where the flood was devastating.

In the South-East, the Zonal Cordinator of NEMA in Enugu, Dr. Onimode Bandele disclosed that flood disaster had been recorded in Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. The zone has moved into the state to distribute relief materials to the victims.

The North-East Coordinator, Mr. Aliyu Sambo confirmed that NEMA has taken relief material to flood victims in some parts of Taraba and Adamawa States. He said the major concern of the agency presently is to control the spread of cholera disease that has so far claimed the lives of 70 people in Adamawa State as at the weekend.

The Zonal Cordinator of NEMA in the South-South, Mr Umesi Emenike disclosed that assessment are going on to determine the level of devastation as result of flood in Akwa-Ibom and Rivers State and once that are completed relief material would be provided to the victims.

The Zonal Cordinator in the South-West, Mr. Akande Iyiola said the agency is organising sensitization campaigns in Lagos on the flood while some neighbouring states where it has completed assessment surveys would receive relief material this week. The states included Oyo and Ogun States

The North-Central geopolitical where River Niger and River Benue flow, the Zonal coordinator Mr. Alhassan Danjuma Aliyu confirmed that all the states in the region are affected by flooding. He mentioned worst affected areas as Wase in Plateau State, Doma in Nasarawa State and various communities in Niger, Benue  and Kwara States. He said trucks from NEMA warehouse in Jos would be moving relief materials to the most worst affected communities.