‘Flood affects 500 Niger communities annually’

Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) has disclosed that over 500 communities in the state are affected by floods annually.

The communities, it said, are located in 13 local government areas of the state.

• PODCAST: What to do with Nigeria’s 10 million out of school children
• Former BBC editor, Isa Abba Adamu, dies at 60

The Director-General of NSEMA, Alhaji Ibrahim Inga, disclosed this at a stakeholders’ meeting in Minna on flood preparedness, mitigation and response programme in the state.

Inga said his agency was making efforts to ensure that no casualty is recorded this year as a result of flood.

“We are looking at the situation whereby we will build the impact of the communities and make them resilient because if we ask them to relocate, it is capital intensive.

So, when we build their capacity, they can live with the situation and maximise it. We are looking at how to save this water and have an all year round farming with water we will channel for irrigation from there,” he said.

Team leader, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) prediction office in Niger, Mr Haruna Zakari, said the outlook showed that the state would experience about 70 percent above normal rain from August to October.

He advised residents in high-risk areas to relocate during the period.