Ekiti State has been identified by the National Emergency Management Agency as one of the states at risk of flooding this year due to higher rainfall in the latter half of the year.
This information was provided by Kadiri Olanrewaju, the Head of Operations for NEMA in the states of Ekiti and Ondo, during a recent road show in Ado-Ekiti to educate traders about the risk of flooding in a variety of languages, including English, Pidgin, Igbo, Hausa, and the Ekiti dialect.
The head of NEMA urged state residents to take preventative measures against the flooding that is anticipated to happen in the state and its surroundings later this year.
The agency stated in a statement that the forecast by relevant agencies had listed Ekiti State among the states that were expected to experience flooding based on increased rainfall volume and added that the majority of local government areas in the state were flood-prone with high risks due to sessional rainfall.
Everyone here has seen the recent floods in Nigeria, which have killed individuals, uprooted thousands of people, and destroyed property worth millions of naira, the speaker stated. Widespread ecological disruption is brought on by floods.
“Therefore, it has become necessary for communities, individuals and authorities to take proactive measures. We need to believe that prevention is better and cheaper than cure, as well as consider climate change issues more seriously.”
Therefore, he advised Nigerians to heed the Nigerian Meteorological Department’s flood warnings, saying that doing so would significantly lessen the flood’s effects.
In a similar spirit, Andrew Famosaya, Director of the Ekiti State Fire Service, asked citizens of Ekiti to halt unlawful tree cutting and instead adopt the practice of planting trees to control deforestation, which might cause floods.
In the meantime, The Spectator had earlier reported that Olaniran Olajire, a professor of geography, and Sunday Wusu, the recently-past president of the Nigerian Institute of Building, had urged all levels of government to support afforestation in order to prevent more floods.
Olajire pointed out that severe weather, which manifests as copious precipitation and high temperatures, is one of the repercussions of climate change, which is affecting the entire planet.
He said, “We have to encourage forestation, which is very commendable because with it, the surface of the land would be covered and the rainwater would infiltrate the soil rather than flow into the river. So, it would prevent a situation where filth would be carried into the river valley, making the valley shallow.”
Wusu claimed that everything would be washed away by erosion if the ground were to become empty.
He said, “It is hard for you to see a forest where erosion happens because there are vegetations there which hold together the soil.
“Clearing lands and vegetation without paying cognisance to flooding and wind is not advisable. Obviating deforestation and recycling of wastes for re-usage are still the most probable solution to flooding in Nigeria.”
