No fewer than 36 people have died while 470 others displaced from their homes following floods due to heavy rainfalls in various parts of Sokoto state from January to date.
Mr Mustapha Umar, the Director Relief and Orientation of the Sokoto State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) disclosed this at stakeholders meeting on disaster management on Thursday in Sokoto.
The meeting was organised by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Umar said about 302, 500 hectares of farmlands were submerged and about 120 animals were killed due to flooding experienced across the state.
He said 19 out of 23 local government areas in Sokoto state were affected by the devastating flooding since the start of the rains in year 2020.
Also, NEMA Head of Sokoto Field Office, Dr Kofoworola Soleye, who represented the Director-General, AVM Muhammadu Muhammed (retired) said the meeting was aimed at brainstorming with relevant stakeholders on disaster management and to fashion out modes of response.
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Muhammed said that the officials would also review measures that were responsible for the level of successes recorded in the past years.
According to him, participants are also expected to assist in identifying loopholes and lapses noticed in the process of disaster management in the current year in the state.
” The effort is to maintain and strengthen the existing synergy between NEMA and other critical stakeholders in disaster management amid COVID-19 which has impacted untold hardship globally.
” The programme is expected to come up with vital suggestions, workable policies and strategies that will enhance mitigation, preparedness and response, to the menace of all kinds of disasters like pandemics.
” Other associated disasters included windstorm, flood, drought, desertification, fire outbreaks, which has threatened economic activities and security challenges as a result of armed banditry which has become a recurring decimal in some major part of the country,” he said.
Muhammed said that disaster management needed coordination and integration of all activities.
He described the partnership as a key necessary to build, sustain and improve the capacity to prepare for protection and response to natural or human-induced disasters.
” It is vital that the federal, state and local governments, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the private sector discharge their respective roles and responsibilities and complement each other in achieving desired goals of disaster management ” Muhammed added.
He urged authorities to give their maximum support and cooperation desired so that together with NEMA the desired purpose of timely response would be achieved.