The flood situation in Nasarawa State has thrown up immense humanitarian crises that require external interventions, a top government official, Mr Zachary Allumaga observed.
Mr Allumaga, who is the executive secretary of the Nasarawa State Emergency Management Agency (NASEMA), said three lives have been lost as more communities are being submerged by floods on daily basis.
Tribune Online had reported that 136,000 persons, across 23 communities, according to the agency statistic, have been displaced between August and September alone.
Our correspondent reports that the data was put together before the recent incident which submerged 17 communities in Toto local government area, one of the flood’s red spots in the state.
Allumaga said two persons lost their lives in Karu local government following a heavy downpour, while one other died in Doma council.
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He noted the humanitarian crises thrown up are beyond the capacity of the state government to handle while appealing to the federal government through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for urgent intervention.
He said the flood situation is more prominent in Toto, Nasarawa, Doma, Lafia, Obi, Karu and Akwanga, designated as red zone and flash points.
He noted that the state government has been moving relief materials to mitigate the suffering of those displaced by the situation, adding that the state will welcome assistance from relevant bodies to effectively manage the crises.
The appeal for aid is coming a few days after the State House of Assembly, during its plenary, called on the federal government to help salvage the situation.
The state assembly’s speaker, Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, said the devastating effect of floods across the state were huge, hence the need for prompt release of relief material to cushion the effect of devastation adding that 50 % of his constituent were not left out of the effect.
He said, “The devastating effects of flood are huge across the state as many lives, animals, buildings, farmlands among other properties have been destroyed, while many have been rendered homeless. It is in view of this that I want to call on both the state and federal governments to provide relief materials to the flood victims without delay.
” I also want to call for the relocation of communities affected by flood to a safer place for their comfortability and to improve on their standard of living.”
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