2019 Int’l Day for Disaster Reduction: NEMA urges measures to reduce adversity

From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Minna Operations Office has charged government and non-governmental organizations alike to come up with measures that would assist in mitigating disasters in the state.
Head of NEMA Minna Operation Office, Mrs Lydia Wagami, in a statement issued in Minna to commensurate the 2019 International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR), said there was need to come up with an approach in order to reduce damages on social infrastructures.
Wagami explained that the call was in line with the theme for this year’s International Day for Disaster reduction tagged “Reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services”.
She said the theme for the 2019 IDDR is a continuation of the “Sendai Seven” campaign, which centres on the seven targets of Sendai Framework.
According to her, the aim was to focus on the target of the Sendai framework which highlights substantially to reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, such as health and education.
She added that the framework sought to develop the resilience of communities in order to prevent or reduce the damage on infrastructure.
Wagami, advocated for active participation of government and non-governmental organisations for the protection of social infrastructures across the state.
She urged communities to be more active in both structural and non-structural mitigation of disasters in the state.
She, however disclosed that there had been an improvement in the management of flood disaster in the state compared to the previous year.
She said the improvement was as a result of adherence of communities to early warnings and signals, adding that the agency had conducted assessment of the affected areas to give support to cushion their sufferings.