Start Preparation Against 2020 Flooding – Agency Advises Nigerians

By Chuks Ekpeneru

The Hydrological Services Agency (NHISA), has warned Nigerians to begin preparations against the 2020 rainy season to avoid the destruction that goes with flooding.

The Director-General of the agency, Clement Nze gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja during NHISA’s 2020 maiden news conference.

 He stressed need for stakeholders to start preparing for the 2020 flooding season in order to avoid the ‘Fire Brigade Approach’.

“We are here to use this medium to inform Nigerians, stakeholders, the state governments in particular and individuals that this is the right time you can prepare for flooding.

“So various governments of Nigeria should begin to prepare for possible flooding for 2020, open up the drainages, or create drainage paths where there are none.

“Remove the structures that are within the flood plains, and let there be adequate drainage paths,” he said.

Nze recalled that on Jan. 21, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) released its 2020 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP), to tell Nigerians when the rains will start, the earliest onset and the cessation date.

He said: “In their prediction, they said the onset of the rainy season in the southern part of Nigeria will be starting from Feb. 24, and in the North, like Sokoto and Katsina, the earliest will be June 22.

“And then for the rainfall to begin to seize, because it starts seizing from the North, according to their prediction, from September 26, it will start seizing from the North downwards to the south, by Dec 28.

“This year the rainfall, from their prediction, will start early and end within the normal time, it means we are going to have a longer period of rainfall if the prediction goes through or things go on as predicted, there will be a longer spell of rainfall but we are monitoring it.”

According to him, flooding can also occur even when the rainy season in Nigeria has stopped.

He said: “Sometimes they can be flooding in Nigeria when the rains have stopped, for instance, last year when the rains had seized in Nigeria in early November, Cameroon opened the Laos Dam on the 10th of October.

“I kept calling the Cameroon authorities, asking did you release water, they said no, meanwhile their Laos Dam was open from October 10 to October 31, complete three weeks.

“Adamawa was submerged, a greater part of it, Taraba, Benue and eventually Kogi State, in the dry spell in Nigeria, when rainfall has seized, so when they open their dam and there is no rainfall in their own territory, flooding will occur.”

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