The National Emergency Management Agency has identified 90 local government areas that are likely to be affected by floods in 2013.
The agency’s press officer, Mr. Manzo Ezekiel, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Abuja, said Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Kogi, Oyo, Imo, Plateau, Kaduna and Bayelsa states would be the most affected.
He said the agency carried out a vulnerability study and identified 90 local government areas in states named by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency rainfall prediction for 2013 to be affected by flooding.
Ezekiel said the vulnerability study was done through NEMA’s Geographical Information System and in a partnership with a non-governmental organisation on disaster awareness creation at the grass roots.
He said disaster awareness campaign was also being carried out by the agency’s six zonal offices in areas that were likely be affected by the floods.
Ezekiel said NEMA had organised a consultative workshop on the 2013 rainfall prediction that was attended by state governors and their representatives on measures to be taken to avert disasters.
The prediction showed that there would be more rainfall in 2013 which might translate to flooding in most of the states.
NAN reports that NIMET’s Director-General, Dr. Anthony Anuforom, recently said the rainfall for 2013 would be above normal as compared with the volume of rain in 2012.
He said there would be more rains in 2013 in the northern states of Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara and Zamfara.
According to Anuforom, catchment areas of River Niger and parts of the Niger Delta had higher chances of even more rainfall this year than previous years.
He said his worry was heightened by the likelihood of some communities in Cross River to be permanently dislocated.
The DG said two other communities in Cross River would be resettled permanently from their ancestral homes for fear of being destroyed.
“We have two major communities that should be relocated. These communities are those that will suffer another major destruction, when the next flood comes. They are Eja in Obubra and Agwagune in Biase,” he said.
