The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has sensitised Jigawa communities to the 2025 National Preparedness and Response Campaign on Flood and Related Hazards.

The agency’s Director-General, Zubaida Umar, said this on Wednesday during an engagement exercise with members of the Local Emergency Management Committees drawn from the 27 local government areas of the state.

The exercise was being implemented in collaboration between NEMA and the Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

It aims to sensitise the stakeholders and residents of the state on proactive measures to mitigate the impact of the flood during the 2025 rainy season.

Ms Umar said the gesture was to strengthen community-based information sharing and security surveillance in flood-prone areas.

Represented by Nura Abdullahi, Head of the Kano Territorial Office of the agency, Ms Umar said it was also to strengthen the early warning system in the event of the disaster.

She said, ”The engagement is to develop measures in collaboration with stakeholders to reduce the likely impact of flooding as predicted by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). Also, predicted by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) in the 2025 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) and 2025 Annual Flood Outlook (AFO), respectively.’’

Ms Umar said the agency had deployed personnel and volunteers to disseminate early warning signs to the people in flood prone communities across the country.

She tasked personnel and partners to support the initiative to enhance dissemination of the early warning messages to the people. This she said was to safeguard against past experiences where the rainy season transformed to a moment of unmitigated adversity.

She said disaster management was everybody’s business; hence, the need for the stakeholders to work together to safeguard communities, protect critical infrastructure and support uninterrupted socio-economic activities.

Commending community leaders for their support, Ms Umar said the agency had produced vulnerability maps for communities at risk to guide the government towards developing risk reduction measures.

Also, the Executive Secretary of SEMA, Hannafi Yakubu, lauded the gesture, adding it would enhance stakeholders’ preparedness to respond to the disaster.

He urged the participants to pass down the messages to their respective communities to mitigate the impact of the flood.

The event was attended by the representatives of the federal and state fire services, government agencies, humanitarian actors, among others. 

(NAN)