The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) urges the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other emergency management agencies to be inclusive of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in their response and measures to reduce disasters.

David Anyaele, executive director of CCD, made the call while briefing journalists on Friday on the impact of impending floods in some parts of the country on Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

Mr Anyaele emphasised that disasters expose persons with disabilities to increased challenges resulting from separation from family and difficulty accessing relief materials.

According to him, despite various calls for disaster risk reduction and prompt response, most state emergency management agencies fail to adequately plan for or include PWDs in their disaster management activities.

“ This causes severe inequities in access to immediate response.

“If adequate care is not taken to address these issues by the identified states by its emergency management agencies and governments beforehand, most persons with disabilities will lose their lives and property,” he warned.

Last Wednesday, NEMA projected that about 14 states and 31 communities might witness heavy rainfall that could lead to flooding from July 4 to July 8.

The states include Kano, Delta, Kebbi, Plateau, Akwa-Ibom, Sokoto, Kaduna, Adamawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Zamfara, Borno, and Jigawa.

Mr Anyaele noted that climate change also drastically increased the frequency and intensity of disasters globally, saying that flooding had been the major disaster in Nigeria with harmful impacts on livelihood, properties and human lives.

He also called for data to show an aggregate of PWDs affected by disasters in Nigeria.

Mr Anyaele recalled that PWDs shared their ordeals after floods killed over 600 people and displaced 1.3 million people across Nigeria in 2022.

Proffering some solutions, he urged NEMA, state emergency management agencies and other relevant stakeholders to awareness campaigns on including PWDs in disaster response.

He said adequate measures should also be taken to ensure that relief materials and other support to displaced persons were distributed without discrimination against persons living with a disability.

Mr Anyaele also advised PWDs, their families and organisations to take the warning of the NEMA very seriously.

(NAN)