The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Tuesday said some local government areas in Sokoto State would face high risk of flooding this year.
The Director General of NEMA, AVM Muhammadu Mohammed said this when his team paid a visit to the 26 Battalion, Nigeria Army, Ginginya Barracks, Sokoto.
According to him, some of the highly probable flood risk areas in the state include; Goronyo, Sokoto North, Sabon Birni, Rabah, Isa, Sokoto South, Dange-Shuni, Kware and Wurno LGAs.
Represented by Director Special Services, Joseph Akujobi, the NEMA director general, noted that the recurring flood was threatening the agricultural potentials of Sokoto state.
“We are here on an advocacy visit on the 2020 flood. Sokoto State is known to be one of the major food producers in the country with the citizens largely engaged in farming activities.
“However, the annual occurrences of flood have continued to threaten this potential.
“Flood has become a recurring experience in Nigeria. After the 2012 devastating flood, a similar one occurred in 2018 leading to a declaration of disaster emergency in many states,” he said.
Mohammed, however, appealed to all stakeholders to evolve strategies capable of minimizing losses through adherence to warning alerts, sensitisation, early preparation and proper response.
The Commanding Officer, 26 Battalion, Lt-Col Usman Mohammed said the Army has a disaster response unit on ground to take care of disaster related issues.
He thanked NEMA for the visit and assured that the Battalion would support them toward controlling all kinds of disaster across their areas of operation.