Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi, on Friday, urged residents in flood-prone areas of the state to avoid activities that expose them to floods.

He said through his deputy, Patricia Obila, that such activities included building on waterways, blocking of drainages and indiscriminate felling of trees.

Mr Nwifuru spoke during the commencement of flood early warning and downscaling strategies in Ebonyi to mitigate the adverse effects of the menace in 2024 by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

“The welfare of the citizens is paramount in our people’s charter of needs, and efforts will be intensified to check the loss of livelihood and property occasioned by floods.

“The state government will provide funds and other logistics needed to effectively downscale these flood early warning strategies to the grassroots,” he said.

He commended NEMA for taking actions to mitigate the effect of flooding in the state and pledged that his administration would cooperate with the agency to achieve its desired goals.

The executive secretary of NEMA, Zubaida Umar, said during the event that the agency would pay special attention to rural areas during the sensitization.

“For the 2024 rainy season, some local government areas (LGAs) in the state are predicted to be affected by flooding.

“The affected councils are in high and moderate flood risk areas and are already listed in NEMA’s earlier communication to the state government.

“This underscores the importance of this flag-off and I seek stakeholders’ support in downscaling early warning and risk mitigation messages to the grassroots,” said Ms Umar through Ejike Martins, the agency’s director of human resource management.

She noted that the devastating impact of floods across the country, especially in 2012 and 2022, requires all tiers of government to collaborate with NEMA in managing disaster risks and associated hazards.

“Lives have been lost; means of livelihood and infrastructure worth billions of naira have been destroyed,” she said.

Ms Umar noted that NEMA relies on rainfall and flood advisories in the Seasonal Climate Predictory and Annual Flood Outlook of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency and the Nigeria Hydrological Service Agency.

“They have provided valuable early warning alerts and we are all expected to take steps that would drastically reduce the adverse impact of floods on the entire landscape.

“This impact is especially on the most vulnerable persons living in communities at risk of flooding,” she said.

Clement Ovuoba, the executive secretary of the Ebonyi State Emergency Management Agency (EB-SEMA), said the agency would increase its efforts to mitigate predicted flooding and raise flood awareness.

(NAN)