Flood: SEMA urges riverine communities to prepare for relocation

The Executive Secretary, Anambra State Emergency Management Agency, (SEMA), Paul Odenigbo, has asked people living in riverine communities and other flood-prone areas of the state to be on the alert in preparation for the impending flood in the state.

Odenigbo, speaking in Awka, said the call was necessitated by the warning of the Nigerian Meteorological Institute, (NIMET) and the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency, that the state is among eight likely to be adversely affected by the predicted flood. 

He identified riverine communities in Anambra East and West, Ayamelum and Ogbaru as well as Onitsha North and South local government areas as the most threatened locations by the impending deluge.

He said that his agency would soon embark on sensitization tour of the flood-prone areas to mobilize people for evacuation to safe areas, advising those who might be adversely affected to take advantage of the 28 Internally Displaced Persons camps in the state.

While calling on residents to make arrangements to avoid the dangers of flash flood in the state this rainy season, the SEMA boss assured that the state government, through the agency, has already made contingency arrangements to give succour to likely victims of the predicted flood.