Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mrs Zubaida Umar has activated all Zonal, Territorial, and Operation offices of Agency nationwide to work with the States Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) within their area of responsibilities.
Gatekeepers News reports that the DG issued the directive through a statement released by NEMA head of Press unit, Manzo Ezekiel.
The development which is aimed to carry out rescue operations and conduct assessment of situations, is part of the agency’s plan of proactive flood risk management.
NEMA Zonal, Territorial, and Operation offices are located in Lagos, Ibadan, Ekiti, Abuja, Minna, Jos, Enugu, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Edo, Uyo, Kano, Sokoto, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Yola and Gombe.
At the headquarters, NEMA also operates a toll-free emergency contact line: 0800CALLNEMA (080022556362) in addition to all its social media platforms through which feedback from members of the public can be received nationwide.
NEMA Search and Rescue officers have also been deployed across the states and providing the much-desired support in coordination of rescue operations with SEMAs and other stakeholders in recently flooded areas and communities.
In addition, the agency is conducting a rapid assessment to determine any further assistance that may be required in impacted communities.
The rescue efforts by NEMA are in furtherance of ongoing sensitization and awareness activities being carried out to alert the public of predicted floods for necessary actions to be taken to avert negative impacts.
The DG visited Anambra State on flood advocacy on Wednesday, 3rd July. She discussed with Deputy Governor who represented the Governor, religious and community leaders on measures to avert and mitigate against flood in the state which often records severe flooding annually.
Before this, she also visited several states and stakeholders across the country on same mission with plans to continue with the advocacy.
As part of its pre-rainy season flood prevention advocacy, the Agency engaged media in placement of flood sensitization jingles. It also held an emergency coordination forum with critical stakeholders to prepare them for the predicted disaster.
After flood prediction was written all State Governments with the list of Local Governments that are at risk, the agency outlined actions required to be taken to avert or mitigate the disaster.
States that heeded the advisory from NEMA have acknowledged their early actions matched with the warnings and NEMA responses that have made lots of differences.
The statement added that “NEMA wishes to reemphasize the flood warning while calling on all stakeholders including State and Local Government to be prepared with the intensifying of the rain season.”
