By Verior Baure
The Katsina State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has urged residents of the state living in flood-prone areas to relocate to safer communities or higher ground to avoid the natural disaster.
The Executive Secretary of the Agency, Hajiya Binta Hussaini Dangani, gave the advice Wednesday while briefing journalists on the preparedness of the state government to mitigate flooding in the state.
She said Katsina is among the 33 states of the federation predicted by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) to be at risk of flooding and windstorms, hence the need for residents of flood-prone areas in the state to relocate to higher grounds.
“This is why we are calling on Katsina residents who are living in flood-prone areas to relocate to safer communities or places. All those that built their houses on water channels should also relocate to aviod the disaster”, she said.
She explained that the state government, through SEMA, was deeply concerned by the NIMET forecasts and was determined to respond proactively to any flooding in the state in order to save lives and property of the citizens.
Dangani further stressed that the state government has inaugurated a 13-member Local Emergency Management Committee to create awareness on flood preventive meassures and other natural disasters at the local government level.
She said the agency, in collaboration with the state government, had sensitised communities on the dangers of flood through the local emergency management committee.
She added that SEMA has also convened a high-level emergency coordination meeting with all the 34 local government chairmen of the state in order to form a united front in the natural disaster preparedness.
She urged residents of the state to ensure that drainages are cleared and not blocked, adhere to building plans, “because we have discovered some of the floods are as a result of one construction on water channels.”
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