Flood in 2022 has led to death of 662 people and displaced 2,430,445 others in different parts of Nigeria, Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed, has said.
Ahmed revealed that another 3,174 people were wounded during the flood disaster.
Ahmed made these revelations on Monday in Abuja at the opening ceremony of a one-week strategic executive seminar for staff of the agency and wider Nigerian emergency management by the Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre (BUDMC).
He said thousands of houses, hectares of farmlands and several critical national assets were also destroyed by the raging floods, noting that the agency, alongside the state governments and other partners, was working towards the long-term recovery of impacted communities across the nation.
According to the DG, the agency brought in United Kingdom and overseas experts to support governments and multi-national organisations with disaster and crisis preparedness, response and recovery for the seminar.
Ahmed predicted flooding this year but was not certain how severe it would be.
“After this training and the release of the Seasonal Climate Prediction by NiMet and the flood outlook by NIHSA and we do the risk mapping, we will write to the governors. We will identify areas and show them the areas that will be affected,” he said.
Ahmed called for synergy with state governments to effectively tackle flooding and its effect.
“I believe all the 36 states must take this course; they should replicate it to the local emergency management committee that they will set up.
“We have to prepare in time. We are planning early so that we get ready early,” he added.
The Director, Human Resource Management (NEMA), Mr Musa Zakari, said fast climatic changes led to increase in frequent natural disasters in the nation.
He said the agency might need to re-examine some fundamentally new and profoundly more efficient approaches to disaster management.
An expert from BUDMC, Mr Richard Gordon, said there must be a Nigerian way of solving Nigerian disaster issues.
He said participants would be trained on various ways to manage disasters better.
