As flood alert put 14 out of the 25 local government areas of Delta in a precarious situation, residents have been given two weeks to clean up their environment or face sanctions in order to reduce the impact of the flood ahead.
The local government areas likely to be heavily impacted include Ndokwa West, Oshimili South, Patani, Ndokwa East, Ughelli South, Oshimili North, Warri South, Ughelli North, Aniocha North, Isoko South, Warri South-West, Ethiope West, Warri North and Uvwie.
Addressing a meeting of council chairmen, landlords, and stakeholders at an overview of the 2021 flood outlook released by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) in Asaba on Monday, Secretary to the state government, Chief Patrick Ukah said that the state government had to take proactive action to mitigate the impact of flooding in the state.
According to him, the state would strengthen its information apparatus to enable landlords associations and orientation agencies to sensitise the communities on the need to keep their environment clean as well as avoiding dumping wastes indiscriminately into water channels.
“Some time ago, we received the flood alert from NiMet, and with such warning, it is only important that we begin to prepare to reduce the impact of the type of flood that follows those flood.
“This meeting has become important not only to pass the warning message from the governor but for us to brainstorm on the way forward.
“If you look round the state and the state capital in particular and its environ, you will find out that people do not have the habit of cleaning their environment, besides, they have turned our drainage to dustbins.
“It is good we heed to the early warning because the government is going to come heavily on defaulters after two weeks of this meeting,” Ukah said.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment in the state, Dr Minnie Oseji said that the state on June 21, received a report from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on the need to take proactive measures with respect to the flood alert of 2021 in the country.
The need for the state government to construct drainages in some strategic locations, make the Private Sector Participants (PSP) be effective and affordable in the waste disposal and be more stringent in enforcing the laws against indiscriminate dumping of waste on the street and into drains were highly emphasized by landlords at the meeting.
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