Nigerian agency prepares flood control measures

Taiye Agbaje in Next (Nigeria): In view of the devastating effect of flood in the North-Western states of Nigeria last year, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has scheduled a regional workshop on climate change and disaster risk management for Sokoto later this month, where dam managers and other stakeholders would be exposed to strategies to prevent a repeat of massive destructions due to flood last year.

Director-general of the agency, Muhammad Sani Sidi, who said the growing threat from climate-related disasters must either be prevented or mitigated, regretted that in 2010 alone, 23 states of the federation were affected by devastating flood with serious consequences on the socio-economic wellbeing of the affected communities.

Mr Sidi said disasters wipe out hard-earned development gains and compels government to divert scarce resources from strategic projects to fund relief and rehabilitation, resulting in major set-backs in development and economic growth….

The city of Kano, Nigeria, in December 1930. Air photo taken by Swiss pilot and photographer Walter Mittelholzer (1894-1937)