Flood: Nasarawa intensifies awareness, urges riverine communities to evacuate

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By Our Reporter, Lafia

Nasarawa State Government says it has intensified awareness creation in the flood-prone Local Government Areas and urged the riverine communities to evacuate to higher grounds.

Mrs Beauty Ebu, Senior Special Assistant to Gov Abdullahi Sule on Fire Service and Disaster Management, said this during the Monthly Sanitation exercise on Saturday in Lafia.

According to her, the state government through its relevant ministries and agencies has since intensified sensitisation of riverine communities in the flood-prone LGAs, noting that people had started complying.

“The most important thing now is to evacuate from the risk areas, on our part as Government, we will support the victims of the flood, especially those whose crops, farmlands, and houses are affected.

“We cannot leave the victims of flood like that without supporting them, we have been giving them support and we will continue to support the victims of flood and other related disasters in the state,” she said.

On flood preparation, she said the Government had provided speed boats for the riverine communities for the evacuation in the event of flooding.

“Government is fully prepared to distribute relief materials – both food and non-food items to the victims should the flood happen as predicted,” she said.

The Governor’s Aide, however, said that the state had not recorded any loss of lives in the flood-related disaster this year.

Dr Abubakar Mohammed, Chief Prosecutor Officer of the Sanitation and also director of enforcement and compliances, Nasarawa State Waste Management and Sanitation Authority said the exercise recorded 85 percent compliance.

He, however, said that 126 defaulters were arrested across the 13 local government areas of the state and noted that they would be prosecuted according to the Nasarawa State environmental laws.

“The task force has been set up after the last sanitation to clean drains, notice have been served to the residents and shop owners respectively to clean up their drains for easy flow of water.

“Our trucks are going around to evacuate the dirt to the final dumping site, remember Nasarawa state is among the states that are predicted to experience flooding by Nigeria Meteorological Agency,” he said.