The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has informed state governors to along the path of River Benue in Nigeria brace up for possible flood disasters in their various domains from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon.
The Head of Media and Public Relations, NEMA, Ezikiel Manzo, said the states had been advised on what to do to mitigate the impact of possible floods.
“We have introduced this into all our awareness programmes and in addition to that, NEMA has written to all the governors to alert them. We have also mentioned the things that they need to do in order to mitigate the impact of the flood.
“So what this means is that with this information concerning the excess water being released from the dam, it means that all the state governments along the River Benue axis, the time has come for them to match action with the information that has been given to them in anticipation of this flood.
“And some of the things they need to do is for them to immediately monitor the people and communities along the flood pathway and begin to move them away from danger.
“They (Lagdo Dam) are just beginning the release of the water, we don’t know, but if the rain increases and the release of the water continues, it means the people will need to move quickly out of the floodplain.”
Manzo, however, stated that ‘if after this initial release we do not have much rain again, then it means they are going to stop. I’m saying this because we don’t want to send people panicking that the release means that they should run away completely from the river bank.
“But what we are saying is that the time has come for the people to be conscious of the risk that is lying beside them in terms of the likelihood that the river will overflow its bank.”
Asked to name the states that are likely to be affected, the NEMA official said, “They include Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi. Then from Kogi, we have states like Anambra, Edo, Delta, and Bayelsa.”
