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By Mohammed Munirat Nasir:
The recent flood disaster in some parts of Gummi local government area of Zamfara state has claimed the life of a seven year old boy and destroyed about 900 houses rendering several hundreds people homeless.
This was disclosed by the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), AVM Muhammad Mohammed (rtd) when agency paid flood Advocacy visit to the state.
Mohammed said the advocacy visits was necessitated following the annual occurrences of flood which have continued and has become a recurring experience in Nigeria.
Mohammed represented by Malam Musa Bungudu said two bridges linking various communities to Gummi town the local government headquarters and other parts of the state and neighbouring Sokoto and Kebbi States are also collapsed leaving residents of the affected communities trapped.
The DG said temporary IDPs camps have been activated to provide succor to the affected victims pending the arrival of the relief intervention from the federal government.
“Though climate change has been largely blamed for this increasing phenomenon, it is our responsibility as government and people to evolve strategies to minimize losses through adherence to warning alerts, early preparation and proper response,” he said.
Mohammed lamented that unfortunately, the predicted floods have occur in many parts of the country it therefore becomes imperative to activate all plans and measures against the prediction as the season moves towards the peak.
He said though 13 of the 14 local government areas of the of the state have been affected but listed Bakura, Maradun, Shinkafi, Zurmi and Gummi local government areas as the highly probable flood risk areas in Zamfara State this year.
Mohammed urged the State Government to take necessary proactive measures to mitigate the occurrence of the addressing the disaster.
