The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has warned that floods are likely to re-occur in parts of the country, News About Nigeria reports.
The NiMet Director of Applied Meteorological Services, Mrs. Glory Onyegbule, gave this warning while speaking at a National Emergency Coordination Forum organised by the National Emergency Management Agency in Abuja on Thursday.
She warned that the flooding would keep occurring and causing harm to both people and properties if efforts were not made to take care of places on the floodplain.
She also urged NEMA to always listen to weather reports and put the reports to good use, preventing floods from taking over communities.
Onyegbule further advised governments, emergency managers, and relevant bodies to use weather forecasts for effective planning.
According to her, NiMet, in fulfillment of its mandate, has issued seasonal climate predictions for the entire country, adding that the agency has ensured that stakeholders, particularly emergency managers, now know what Nigeria’s climate will look like in 2024 regarding rainfall and other climatic factors.
She advised emergency managers to always act fast, adding that those responsible for dams should protect the integrity of the facilities.
She said, “In the seasonal climate prediction, we predicted onset dates of the rainy season. We also predicted deposition dates, the expected annual rainfall amount, and the length of the rainy season.
“In doing this, we also compared the impact of all these predictions to long-time averages.
“Then we saw that there were deviations, especially in areas such as the North East – places such as Maiduguri and Bauchi—and we made this available to Nigerians in time.
