The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Tuesday warned residents in nine flood-prone local government areas of Borno State to relocate to higher ground immediately to save lives and property.
 
NEMA’s Acting Zonal Coordinator, Surajo Garba, made the appeal during a sensitization workshop on effective waste management and flood management in Maiduguri, citing predictions by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) that the nine LGAs will be severely flooded this year.
 
“The NiMET weather prediction is almost 100 percent correct,” he said before asking those residing on low-lying grounds to move to higher grounds for safety. This forecast should be taken seriously, and those residing in prone areas should begin to relocate to higher ground. We are appealing to them.

Garba urged communities to relocate to higher ground before flooding starts, emphasising that the forecast should be taken seriously. 

The affected LGAs include Maiduguri, Kaga, Mobar, Bama, Abadam, Ngala, Kala-Balge, Dikwa, and Jere.

NEMA, SEMA, BOSEPA, and other partners are working together to safeguard lives and property and provide necessary sensitization to communities in the state. 
 
The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Dr. Julianna Bitrus, emphasised that cleaning drainages is a collective responsibility and not just a government task.

“It has always been our calling, especially during this rainy season, to tell people that the cleanliness of the environment must be left with the government and that taking care of waste disposal must be everybody’s business. It is our responsibility to take care of our drainages in order to avoid flooding, and everybody must be involved in this.”
 
The workshop was attended by traditional rulers, religious leaders, SEMA, BOSEPA, local NGOs, and other partners, all of whom were urged to take responsibility for maintaining clean environments and preventing floods.