The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has stressed the need for critical disaster management stakeholders, institutions of governments and other various bodies in Imo state, South-East Nigeria to undertake different roles and tasks at various stages of disaster management circles in the state.
It stated that such actions should be directed in areas as risk reduction, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Head, NEMA Owerri Operations office, Mr. Ifeanyi Nnaji, stated this Thursday, in his speech at a disaster management stakeholders meeting held in Owerri, the Imo state capital.
Nnaji also charged residents, critical stakeholders, and institutions in the state, to always do everything humanly possible to prevent or mitigate the impact of flooding and other prevailing disaster in their environment.
The meeting with the Theme: “Disaster Risk Management in Imo State and Preparedess for 2022 Flood Prediction By NIMET and NIHSA.”
Nnaji said: “it is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to today’s stakeholders meeting to discuss on the issues concerning Disaster Risk Management in Imo State and the implications of 2022 Seasonal Climate Prediction and Annual Flood Outlook by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) and Nigeria Metrological Agency (NIMET).”
According to him, incidences of disaster in Nigeria have increased in frequency and intensity in recent times and Imo State is not an exemption to both natural and human induced disasters.
“A lot of resources are being diverted to emergency management in the country which could have been used for other developmental projects.
“There is need to deploy proactive measures to prevent or mitigate the impacts of disaster when it happens.”
Nnaji noted that some of the prevalent disasters in the state include: electoral violence, kidnapping, building collapse, fire disaster, flood, gully erosion, oil spillage, pipeline vandalism and illegal oil refineries.
