The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency has blamed Ministries of Environment in flood risk states for their late flood mitigation efforts.
The Director General of the Agency, Mr. Clement Eze, who apportioned the blame Saturday night while speaking on a television programme, said the states, which had been notified of the impending flooding early enough ought to have taken measures to mitigate the predicted situation before the rains set in.
Eze said the Ministry of Environment in each of the states had all the dry season to clear natural waterways and drainage channels preparatory for the rainy season, stressing that doing so when the rains had started was tantamount to medicine after death.
The NIHSA DG said the essence of the agency’s predictions was to put the would be affected states on the alert and avoid the ugly experiences of previous floodings, but regretted that most of the state would wait until July before working on blocked canals, natural waterways and drainage channels, which compromised free flow of flood.
He explained that the current flooding was from local rainfall, pointing out that the situation could get messier from the month of October should Cameroon open her dam.
Eze urged State Emergency Management Agencies to be more proactive in emergency management response, insisting that some of them were not adding any value to the system.
The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, NIHSA, had earlier predicted massive flooding in 102 local government areas in 28 states that fall within highly probable flood risk areas, including Delta.
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