By Abdullahi Lukman
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is ramping up efforts to protect communities from the 2025 rainy season’s anticipated floods, commencing with a stakeholder engagement and sensitization campaign in Kano’s Doka community, Tofa Local Government Area.
This initiative, held on Wednesday, aims to foster early action and safeguard lives and livelihoods.
NEMA’s Director General, Zubaida Umar, represented by the Kano Territorial Coordinator, Dr. Nuradeen Umar, stated that the campaign aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope Agenda” to drive socio-economic growth.
The program, titled “Strengthening Resilience, Enhancing Preparedness and Response,” was organized in collaboration with the Kano State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
The sensitisation seeks to reduce the impact of recurring floods that have historically caused significant loss of life, injury, and destruction of infrastructure and savings.
NEMA has developed vulnerability maps for at-risk communities to guide governments in developing risk reduction measures.
Public and private institutions, humanitarian organizations, schools, and youth groups are encouraged to utilize these early warning tools.
NEMA’s disaster mitigation strategies include capacity building for local emergency responders, simulation exercises, rainwater harvesting, and advising farmers on adherence to predicted rainfall onset before planting.
Other measures involve desilting drainages and natural waterways, conducting integrity tests for critical infrastructure, developing evacuation plans, fostering community-based information sharing, and increasing safety and security surveillance in vulnerable areas.
The DG also highlighted the broad impact of disaster risks on various sectors, including socioeconomic activities, healthcare, rain-fed agriculture, transportation, energy, telecommunications, education, and security.
She called upon traditional institutions, religious organizations, women’s groups, media, and youth groups to support the agency in disseminating early warning messages to the public.
In a related development, the Secretary to the Kano State Government, Faruk Ibrahim, noted that predictions from relevant bodies indicate Kano Central Senatorial District might experience moderate flooding, while some local government areas in Kano North could face a severe spell of drought.
