Monday, June 13, 2011

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)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just goes to show that it almost always is better to invest in prevention for things like proper stormwater control, rather than just hope for the best. Hopefully, they get it right this time!
-Jackie