No fewer than 372 Nigerians died as a result of floods which occured in 33 states over the past eight months.
The affected states are Adamawa, Jigawa, Taraba, Kano, Bauchi, Niger, Anambra and Ebonyi.
Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed, disclosed this in Abuja, during the commissioning of the newly acquired fleet of operational vehicles and urban search and rescue (USAR) specialised equipment.
He said: “Current trends in hazards identification, risk mapping and actual disasters have shown increasing instances of structural collapses, fuel tanker explosions, other road crashes and fire outbreaks which are either isolated disasters or derivative disasters in the raining seasons mostly characterized by floods.
“In recent weeks, devastating floods have ravaged countries such as South Africa, Pakistan, India, Japan, the Gambia, Italy and a host of other countries including Nigeria.
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“The calamities that trailed these floods makes it imperative to identify gaps in the national inventories of disaster management equipment and technology in Nigeria.
“This consideration informed the decision of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to prioritize the enhancement of its fleet of operational vehicles and urban search and rescue (USAR) specialized equipment.
“In the last eight months, floods in Nigeria; mostly flash floods, have inundated 33 out of 36 States and FCT, affected over 508,000 persons, leading to about 372 deaths, 277 injured persons, destruction of about 37,633 houses, loss of huge numbers of livestocks and several farmland have been submerged, mostly in Adamawa, Jigawa, Taraba, Kano, Bauchi, Niger, Anambra, and Ebonyi States. These have been accompanied by other derivative disasters.
“I wish to note, with pleasure, that the Agency has begun to venture into realms of Proactive and Predictive Disaster Risk Management in line with best practices.
“No doubt, the effort at new acquisitions will close existing gaps, meet the current operational cum tactical challenges faced by actors responding to emergencies in the field, increase the Agency’s asset base in preparedness at the HQ and across the Zonal, Territorial and Operational Offices (ZTOs).
“The initiative will also support the response capabilities of stakeholder agencies and individuals during emergencies. Only last month, our entire staff received new sets of personal protective equipment and gears for use in their operations and activities.
“I strongly believe therefore, that the induction of the new mission-critical equipment today, will further ensure efficient and fast location, recovery and treatment of victims as well as upscale community resilience in the country,” he said.
In the bid to strengthen its operations across the country, the Agency acquired state-of-the-art equipment including: 3 Mobile Intensive Care Unit Ambulances (MICUs), 3 Incident Response Vehicles (IRVs), 2 Motorized Boats, 2 Inflatable Boats, 9 Flood Lights, 15 Probe Cameras and 3 Life Locators.
Others are: 15 Breaching Systems, 9 Chain Saws, 6 Concrete Cutters, 9 Full Body Harness and 9 Hose Pump Unit.
Others are 9 Hydraulic Cutter, 9 Hydraulic Hose, 9 Hydraulic Rescue Ram, 9 Hydraulic Spreader, 9 Manual Cutter/Spreader and 3 Concrete Cutting Saw.
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