By Grace Samuel
The National Emergency Agency (NEMA), has launched a national contingency plan to avert the impact of flooding and natural disasters in the country.
The national contingency plan was launched at Abuja, the nation”s Federal Capital Territory, last Monday, with the aim of reducing environmental and flooding disaster which negatively impacted the lives of Nigerians.
According to NEMA, the Plan will not only safeguard lives and livelihoods but will also help empower Nigerians on how to respond effectively to emergencies.
Director-General of NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed at the event to launch the plan, explained that Nigeria has experienced quite a number of flooding and.also suffered losses from flood disasters.
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“The importance of a National Contingency Plan cannot be overstated as Nigeria has experienced quite a number of human and natural disasters, public health emergencies, and other unforeseen events which can occur at any moment, causing immense devastation and disruption of the functioning of the society. It is our duty, as disaster managers and citizens, to ensure that we are adequately prepared to respond swiftly and efficiently to such situations.
“The objective of the analysis was to identify, assess and rank risks with a view to understanding related vulnerabilities and capacities, while fostering effective risk management approaches among agencies addressing the same or similar threats. The outcome of the risk analysis guided the review of the National Contingency Plan.
““NEMA will focus on disaster preparedness actions including continuous revision of risks across the country, supporting states in development of contingency plans and also focus on early warning system to enable communities understand the risks they face and linkages to ensure they are able to prevent, prepare and respond to these risks. To do this, NEMA is specially requesting the support of UNICEF in this regard. Additionally, NEMA will want other partners to commit to this support in a coordinated manner while working with concerned departments in NEMA, to ensure the resources are evenly distributed across the country especially with the current limited resources,” the NEMA Director-general stated.
Also speaking, the country representative of UNICEF in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, who was represented by Chief of WASH, Jane Bevan said, “After the devastating floods that affected 4.4 million people in Nigeria in 2022, including some 2.6m children, and displaced around 2.4m people, this event today highlights the importance of emergency preparedness. To prepare means to avert or lessen the impact of flooding on those living in flood-prone areas. To prepare therefore also means to plan in advance, and therefore here we are today to review the National Contingency Plan.
“In 2022, UNICEF supported NEMA In updating the risk analysis. In addition, in the course of five workshops that convened State Emergency Management Authority or SEMA representatives from 22 states, the five zonal contingency plans launched today were developed.”
