NEMA DEPLOYS TEAMS IN 15 FLOOD HIGH-RISK STATES.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has deployed officials to 15 high-risk states in Nigeria to warn residents about impending floods and advise them to relocate from flood-prone areas, following a recent flood disaster in Mokwa, Niger State, which claimed over 200 lives and displaced many residents. 

NEMA's Head of Press Unit, Manzo Ezekiel, said the agency had earlier identified Mokwa as one of the local government areas at risk of flooding, although the magnitude of the disaster was unprecedented.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Professor Joseph Utsev, has dismissed reports that the flooding and deaths in Mokwa were caused water released from Kainji and Jebba Dams. 

The minister, who rather attributed the disaster to heavy rainfall, as well as unregulated buildings and construction activities that blocked a tributary of River Niger, urged residents in flood-prone areas to heed early warnings and take necessary precautions.

Also, the Niger State Emergency Management Agency had previously put the death toll from the Mokwa flood at 160, but seven more bodies have been recovered. 

NEMA said it has intensified community engagements to avert flood disasters in other states, including Ekiti, where residents have been advised to guard against behavior and activities that could cause flooding.