President Goodluck Jonathan has declared that no excuses will be tolerated this year from any ministry or parastatal responsible for flood prevention if there is a recurrence this year of last year’s floods.
He said this at a meeting of ministers and officials to review ongoing containment measures at the Presidential Villa on Monday that after the flood disaster of last year which caused havoc around the country, he expected adequate preparations to be made to deal with future occurrence.
He ordered heads of federal government ministries, departments and agencies whose functions are relevant to flood prevention and control to ensure that every necessary action was taken to prevent a recurrence of the flood disaster that wreaked havoc in parts of the country.
“We have no excuse to be caught unprepared again after the floods of last year,” the president said, adding that he expected all relevant Ministries, Department and Agenciess to be very proactive in speedily implementing required flood prevention and management measures.
He directed the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Flood Prevention and Control which include the Ministers of Environment, National Planning, Water Resources, Finance, Health, Transport and Aviation to establish effective liaison with governors of all flood-prone states and ensure that there was proper coordination between federal agencies and the states in the implementation of flood control measures.
He also stressed the need for greater public enlightenment and advocacy to ensure compliance with measures that had been evolved to prevent a recurrence of devastating floods across the country.
A technical team established by the Inter-Ministerial Committee presented a National Climate and Flood Control Framework to the president which detailed short term, mid-term and long term measures recommended to solve the problem of perennial flooding in parts of the country.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency also informed the president that it was constantly monitoring soil moisture saturation across the country since the onset of the rainy season, saying that its real time monitoring of weather conditions will enable the agency to give early warning of floods.