By Stanley Onyekwere
The ongoing demolition of illegal structures and involvement of Local Emergency Management Committee and volunteers at the local levels are part of the strategies, which ensured that there is no death this year, as a result of flooding in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Making this disclosure yesterday, Director General, FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Alhaji Abbas Idriss, said there was strong political will that helped cleared obstructions on water flowing to its discharge point, caused by the activities of some residents.
Idriss, who spoke at an event organised by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to mark the 2022 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) in Abuja, added that its local divers, disaster vanguards and other volunteers are working round the clock to ensure that any flooding incidence was not devastating.
He said: “Disaster risk reduction and management is a bottom up strategy. We have to make sure that we inculcate the habit into our locals, to ensure that being the first respondents and most vulnerable when it (disaster) happens.
“Liaising with Nimet, and as soon as we get the early warning, which is prompted to do the early action, we promptly inform those Local Emergency Management Committee and volunteers at the local levels to be at alert, by getting prepared and putting all strategies in place, to ensure that it is not devastating.
“It is one of those strategies that this year in the FCT, we have not witnessed any death/ recorded any dead person, as a result of flooding in FCT.
“On daily, there are a lot of demolitions going on in the FCT. This is also strategic, because we discovered that having planned Abuja very well, there is no point to say that we are having obstructions on water flowing to its discharge point, because of the activities of some residents.
“Therefore, we got the political will from the FCT Minister, that anything that is obstructing water from getting to its discharge point should be removed immediately.
“ This is why is being done, and it is going to be sustained, so that we can have a very safer federal capital territory. Even if it is an entire estate that is sitting on waterways, it is going to be removed.
“We removed over 250 houses at Lokogoma District, and it is going to be continuos exercise. Only last week, we removed some structures also at Lifecamp and so many other places. That is the only way we can have a clean society, and the only way we can be able to fight the negativities of the climate change.
“Early warning and early action is something that we are supposed be doing. IDDRR has really come to educate and enlighten the world on the aims and objectives of disaster risk reduction, which is very critical. It also shows that we need to be very proactive, apt and doing.”
