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NEMA warns South East residents of impending flood
News & Trends •
the director noted that it was necessary to begin preparations on time in readiness for such disaster as it might eventually become big and devastating1 the director of national emergency management agency nema south east zonal office mr walson ibarakumo has warned of impending flood risk in specific areas of enugu anambra and ebonyi states1 iberakumo said his warning was based on the forecast by national hydrological services agency nihsa and nigeria meterological agency nimet1 the nema boss said the reason for the impending flood and storm was due to climate change1 the heavy rainfall storm and wind currently experienced in these states is as a result of climate change so the people should not be taken by surprise whenever they start experiencing it1 you know climate change has brought about a lot of changes to our environment amongst which is the flood risk that has been forecasted ibarakumo said1 he therefore advised that residents of the aforementioned states needed to have a change of attitude especially as regards to energy use until the climate returned to its normal state1 ibarakumo said that nema had started creating awareness in the affected states and would be conducting simulation with other relevant response agencies soon1 he disclosed this in an interview with the news agency of nigeria nan in enugu on wednesday1 ibarakumo went ahead to reel out the names of the forecasted areas describing some as highly probable and probable1 enugu south and east are the highly probable areas while oji river udi and uzo uwani are the probable flood risk areas1 in anambra state aguata idemili north and ogbaru are the highly probable flood risk areas while anambra east and west anaocha ayamelum onitsha north and south dunukofia orumba north njikoka and oyi are the probable areas1 in ebonyi state afikpo south abakaliki ebonyi ezza south ikwo ohaukwu and afikpo itself are areas prone to flood risk he said1 in addition he said nema had been able to effectively and successfully handled 30 emergency situations from january to june 20181 ibarakumo mentioned that these emergency situations involve floods fire outbreaks collapsed buildings and communal clashes1 he said that they were able to manage these disasters with the help of the local emergency management committees at the local government level and the state emergency management agency sema1 he said nema was facing a big challenge in terms of funding which was limiting its operations1