The Nasarawa State government has intensified sensitisation to flood-prone local government areas to mitigate flood disasters.

Yakubu Kwanta, the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, said this during the monthly sanitation on Saturday in Lafia, the state capital.

Mr Kwanta, represented by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Garba-Rosha Mohammed, said the ministry had gone to flood-prone communities to sensitise them to the need for early evacuation in the event of flooding.

He said Nasarawa State was among the states that the federal government, in the administration of President Bola Tinubu, gave N3 billion toward mitigating flooding.

“As you know, Governor Abdullahi Sule is a transparent person; he will ensure that the fund is utilised judiciously, especially for what it is meant for.

“We have been creating awareness of flooding and the need for early evacuation from flood-prone areas. We have automated machines in flood-prone local government areas that are connected to our phones.

”Any time the alarm is shown to us that there will be flooding, we start telling these people to evacuate to a safer place,” Mr Kwanta said.

He applauded the level of compliance on sanitation and called for sustenance in the state.

“Actually, we went around with the media; we have seen what people are doing; the compliance was 85 per cent,” the commissioner said.

Mr Kwanta said sanitation inspectors were deployed to supervise the evacuation of the drains and culverts for easy flow of water to prevent flood and other devastating effects on the environment.

Abubakar Mohammed, the chief prosecution officer of sanitation, said that 86 defaulters were arrested.

Mr Mohammed, also the director of enforcement and compliances at Nasarawa State Waste Management and Sanitation Authority, said some arrests made in the cause of sanitation were mostly motorists and tricycles.

“We summon the Chairman of Tricycle Riders Association for not informing his people before the sanitation, even though he is part of the team,” he said.

Mr Mohammed gave the breakdown of the arrest in the local governments as Lafia,12; Doma, 15; Nasarawa, Eggon, 12; Karu, 35; and Keffi, 12, noting that they would be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others.

(NAN)