NEWS
NEMA Tasks Enugu Communities on Building Flood Prevention, Resilience Action Plans
From Sylvia Udegbunam Enugu
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), on Thursday urged flood prone communities within council areas in Enugu State on building flood prevention and resilience action plans.
The Acting Zonal Coordinator of NEMA South-East, Ngozi Echeazu gave the task during a sensitization on Proper Waste Management and Flood Preparedness in Eha-Amufu community within Isi-Uzo LGA of Enugu State.
The sensitization, which would be carried out in flood prone communities within three council areas in Enugu State, was organized by NEMA in collaboration with Enugu State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
Echeazu advised community leaders and community disaster stakeholders to put together a local disaster management team as well as plan using both structural/non-structural measures to mitigate flood disaster.
According to her, the communities and stakeholders should formulate a local disaster mitigation team and plan that will take care of various health challenges that are associated with flooding and improper waste disposal.
“As part of the flood prevention and resilient action plan is the transfer of agricultural and livelihood risk and possible losses through the use of insurance companies.
“There is a need for dumpsters and designated locations for refuse dumps in communities in order to ensure that drainage is not blocked by refuse and silt created by indiscriminate refuse dump.
“You should also have a designated flood safe place for Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) temporal settlement within the local response plan to be carried out with the Local Emergency Management Committees (LEMCs),” she said.
She noted that building the resilience of communities to flood disasters had become imperative following the 2024 Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) predictions.
“This sensitisation is in line with the NEMA’s mandate to reach out and build capacities of LGAs/communities that are prone to flood disaster in the South-East especially in Enugu State.
“For Enugu State, the Agency is targeting its sensitization within communities in three LGAs, which are Isi-Uzo, Awgu and Enugu South LGAs from today to the weekend,” the zonal coordinator said.
The Executive Secretary of SEMA Enugu State, Chinasa Mbah appreciated NEMA for the sensitisation on proactive actions to be taken to mitigate the impact of flooding and also assisting the state to sort its emergency and response issues always.
Responding, the Traditional Ruler of Eha-Egu autonomous community within Eha-Amufu area, Igwe Samuel Ogbodo, assured that the people would abide by all instructions and warnings issued by NEMA and take proactive and concrete actions on mitigating the impact of flooding.
On his part, Member representing Isi-Uzo State Constituency, Hon. Gabriel Eze, commended the joint efforts of Federal, State and Local Governments in supporting proactive measures meant to mitigate disaster as well as disaster management by NEMA and SEMA.
Eze revealed that the gaps observed in the activities of LEMCs within the 17 council areas of the state, including Isi-Uzo LGA, would in no distant time be resolved by the Enugu State House of Assembly.
The event also featured a key presentation on “Flood Preparedness and Proper Waste Management”, which was delivered by a senior official of NEMA, Ezeani Nnanyelugo, in Igbo language.
The highlights of the event were an interactive session, distribution of flyers on Proper Waste Management/Flood Preparedness tips in both English and Igbo language as well as sharing of emergency numbers of relevant stakeholders to participants.
The sensitization was attended by state/LGA functionaries, traditional rulers, community leaders/members including religion leaders, traders, farmers, okada riders/drivers, artisans and other relevant stakeholders such as Nigeria Police, Red Cross, NYSC members, Forest Guards among others.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit Zone C, says it intercepted contrabands with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N510.92 million between July 15th and September 15th, 2024.The zone covers the six states in the South-South geopolitical zone and the five states in the Southeast geopolitical zone.
This is contained in a statement signed by Jerry Attah, Public Relations Officer, NCS, Zone C, and made available to journalists on Wednesday. According to the statement, Comptroller Michael Ugbagu, NCS, Zone C, gave the statistics while showcasing the seized contraband to relevant regulatory agencies at the Government Warehouse in Edo.Ugbagu said that the zone also recovered the sum of N25.57 million from demand notices raised based on some infractions noticed, making a cumulative sum of N536.49 million recorded within the months under review.“The DPV was derived from our seized goods, which include 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without an NAFDAC number.“1,015 sacks of dry donkey meat and skin, 75 jumbo bales of second-hand clothing, 463 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 269 pieces of used pneumatic tires, and 56 cartons of smuggled foreign tomato paste.“More worrisome is the interception of 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without NAFDAC registration numbers.”He noted that the cough syrup with codeine and tramadol without NAFDAC registration numbers, if not intercepted, could have had adverse effects on youths.He added that the items were mostly intercepted along the Ewu-Okada/Benin expressways based on credible intelligence. (NAN)
The Forum of Stakeholders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has decried the deplorable condition of some federal roads in Nigeria. Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, the North-Central Chairman of the forum, said this in an interaction with newsmen on Wednesday in Jos. Zazzaga described some of the federal roads as ”death traps”, particularly those within the north-central region.
He said that some of the deplorable roads in the region include Jos-Akwanga, Makurdi-Oturkpo-Otukpa, Makurdi-Ankpa, and Jos-Saminaka. Other roads that needed urgent attention, he said, included Suleja-Minna, Ejule-Otukpa, Ganawuri-Manchok, Lokoja-Abuja, Lapai-Agaie-Bida, Birnin-Gwari-Bokani-Mokwa, Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora. ”Currently, the north-central region has the most deplorable roads and highways in the country. ”These deplorable roads have brought severe hardship on the people and lost lives and property through preventable road traffic crashes. ”We call on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and ensure the rehabilitation of these roads because good roads are vital enablers of development,” he said. The chairman also called on governors of states within the region to reconstruct the dilapidated roads and seek refunds from the federal government. ”Though these are largely federal roads, they are located within states, and the beneficiaries are the people of these states. ”So we call on state governments to reconstruct these roads and seek refunds from the federal government,” he added. (NAN
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 160 pips to 7.087 against the dollar on Wednesday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreigners exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
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