DELTA State Commissioner for Environment, Hon. (Barr) John Nani, has identified collaboration among the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and other relevant stakeholders as key to effective and successful management of flood and other environmental hazards in the state.
Hon. Nani stated this in Asaba yesterday while declaring open a coordination meeting on improving synergy to manage the predicted 2015 flood in Delta State organized by Delta State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA) in collaboration with NEMA.
He said that the Ministry of Environmental had in the past few weeks stepped up the sensitization and advocacy for the involvement of relevant stakeholders in a state-wide preparedness and general management of flooding across the state.
The commissioner also opined that as part of the ministry’s strategic planning, ecological sensitive areas and environmental components had been identified and their vulnerable assessment evaluated, adding that if flood was not properly managed, the devastating impacts would be monumental and recovery and remediation process globally are very difficult.
To this end, he advised the people living in coastal communities in the state, vulnerable to coastal flooding to relocate to safer grounds, saying that farming and other activities on flood plains should be stopped and proper management of waste and land use be ensured.
He said that in order to ensure emergency response to the predicted 2015 flood, the Ministry of Environment had embarked on some strategic action plans which include clearance and opening of concrete and earth dams, removal of obstructions and illegal structures from natural waterways, among others.
In their remarks, the Secretary to the Delta State Government (SSG), Hon. Festus Ovie Agas, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Office of the SSG, Mr. Jerome Morka and the Head of Service (HOS), Sir Patrick Origho, commended the organizers of the programme, saying that all hands should be on deck to ensure mitigation of flood risk in the state.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Delta State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Emmanuel Yugbovwre, said the stakeholders’ meeting became imperative in order to prepare adequately for the 2015 predicted flood.
His words, “2012 flood disaster took us by surprise and there was a lot of confusion at onset with regards to response. Given that experience, it would be foolish to have a repeat”.
“For us as critical stakeholders in the management of emergencies and disaster this meeting became imperative so as to sit down and plan on how to tackle the threat we are presently confronted with”, adding that if the flood disaster does occur, it would be challenged by a formidable state team to save lives and property of people living in the Delta State.
The meeting, which featured paper presentation on Emergency Preparedness and the Roles of the Stakeholders by Mr. Emenike Umesi, Deputy Director, Planning Research and Forecasting, NEMA, Abuja, was attended by stakeholders from across the states.
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