NEMA warns Osun residents against flood disaster.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) through its boss called on Osun residents to prepare against flood disaster that will be accompanied by heavy rainfall between August and November.
Mr Olusegun Afolayan, the NEMA Zonal Head of Operations for Ekiti, Osun and Ondo, who made this known during a sensitisation programme on Thursday in Osogbo, said Osun was one of the 28 states predicted to experience flooding by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET).
Afolayan who warned residents living around river banks and waterways to vacate the areas in order to avoid flood disaster as predicted by NIMETsaid the only way to reduce the effect of the predicted flooding was by allowing the water to flow its natural course without hindrances.
The NEMA boss, who went round the flood prone areas with his team and officials of the Osun State Emergency Management Agency (OSEMA), appealed to residents living close to the river banks and waterways to leave the area before the rain began to avoid loss lives and property.
Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines of the sensitisation, Afolayan said that the Director-General of the agency, Muhammadu Muhammed had directed that people living in flood prone areas should be sensitised and warned ahead of the coming rainfalls.
“Osun is one of the 28 states predicted to be affected by this year’s rainfall by NIMET and that is why we are here to sensitise people living in flood risk areas to do the needful to minimise the effect of the coming flood.
“The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency and NIMET predicted the same thing that 28 states and 102 local government areas will be affected by flood this year.
“We have high probable risk flood areas in Osogbo and Ila-Orangun, together with 14 other local government areas that will be affected by flood in Osun.
“It is on this prediction that NEMA embarked on flood sensitisation for flood response and mitigation in our various states and local governments likely to be affected by flood disaster.
“Flooding is a natural occurrence and the only way to mitigate against it is for the people to take precautionary measures by not building on water planes, dumping refuse in waterways and for those living around flood plane areas to leave such areas.
“The government has done its own by dredging and expanding the water ways to allow free flow of water but the people too need to be sensitised to do the needful so that when the flood comes, its effect would be minimal,” Afolayan said.
Also, Mr Tajudeen Adabanija, the General Manager of SEMA, said the 2019 flood affected a lot of people in the state and that they had also been sensitising and warning those in the affected areas to move out of such areas.
Adabanija said the government had done so much to reduce the effect of flooding in the state in the year.
He warned those staying near the waterways to vacate to prevent loss of property as was the case of 2019.
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