By Praise Chinecherem
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has raised alarm over imminent flooding, advising residents, particularly farmers in flood prone areas in Anambra State to harvest and relocate to upland areas.
Coordinator of NEMA, Enugu Zonal Office, Thickman Taminu, who gave the advice on Tuesday in Awka, said the prediction on flooding by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency was still valid and that the danger of flooding was not fully averted in the state.
He said farmers should carry out their harvesting on time to avoid loss of lives and destruction of produce.
According to him, there were two waves of flooding that were experienced annually, adding that while the one currently on was the heavy rain induced category, the one that occurred as a result of overflow of rivers by waters running into the Ocean was looming.
He said, “What we experience now is floods that come from rain and disappear almost immediately but the one that comes from overflow of rivers and dams is still coming as predicted by NIMET.
“So, we advise people to consider early harvest and relocation to higher land to minimise losses.”
Taminu however said the Federal Government through NEMA had not received invitation from Anambra Government to either come and access the situation or intervene on flood related challenges.
He explained that the State Emergency Management Agency was the lead response agency in the state and that NEMA would move in whenever it was invited to come and assess the flood situation.
He said there was need for timely appreciation to enable NEMA to take proactive measures that would lead to early intervention.
