Nigeria: 90 LGAs are Liable to Floods in 2013 - NEMA

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has identified 90 local government areas which are likely to be affected by floods in 2013.

The agency's Press Officer, Manzo Ezekiel, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Abuja.
He said that the agency carried out a vulnerability study and identified 90 local government areas in states named by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) Rainfall prediction 2013 to be affected by flooding.

Mr. Ezekiel said that the vulnerability study was done through NEMA's Geographical Information System.
He said that NEMA, in a partnership with a non-governmental organisation on disaster awareness creation at the grassroots, had commenced sensitisation exercise on early warnings and prevention in the affected areas.

He said that disaster awareness was also being carried out by the agency's six zonal offices in areas that were likely be affected by the floods.
Some of the states, mostly to be affected according to the NIMET prediction are Cross River, Ogun, Kogi, Oyo, Imo, Plateau, Kaduna, Bayelsa and Lagos States.

Several feared killed in Kano flood

There was heavy rainfall in Kano on Friday.

Many people are feared to have lost their lives and several buildings destroyed in Kano on Friday following a heavy downpour which lasted several hours and flooded roads and streets within the city.

The rain commenced at about 1:30 p.m. and lasted several hours, resulting in heavy flood that affected many houses, many of which are mud houses.

There is no official confirmation yet on the number of casualties and the level of destruction caused by the flooding.

Residents said several families have been rendered homeless while the Kano State Fire Service was still rescuing victims as at the time of filing this report.

Flooding during the rainy season has virtually become an annual occurrence in Kano.

Source: NEMA

LADIES!!! Invitation to the Google ladies MapUp in Garki Abuja

picture from readwrite.com 

As a follow up to AbujaMapUp in January which I was actively involved, here comes special package for our esteem ladies:
The digital mapping community in Abuja invites "Ladies" to our Ladies #AbujaMapUp coming up on Friday, August 16 and Saturday, August 17, 2013 in Garki. This Garki, Abuja event will show participants [Ladies] how to map different places, draw roads, add categories and discuss other features.This will enable them become citizen cartographers and improve the quality of maps and local information of Garki.

To be part of this event, kindly register at https://sites.google.com/site/abujamapup/

This event hopes to make particularly Garki, Abuja, a better mapped town with relevant and recent local information such as roads, schools, hospitals, banks,hotels,police stations and such other important places entered by participants, having local knowledge.

The Save Bagega is Complete! Senator Saraki Receives Certificate of Appreciation

The Chairman Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki representing Kwara Central Senatorial District has received a Certificate of Appreciation from the TERRAGRAPHICS INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION for the exemplary leadership role he played to see to the completion and the overall success of the BAGEGA LEAD POISONING REMEDIATION PROJECT.

 

During the Certificate presentation, Senator Saraki was particularly happy to officially report that the entire Bagega area and all the other villages of Zamfara state which has since 2010 been ravaged by lead poisoning has become fully remediated.

He added that by this feat, Nigeria has achieved the largest lead remediation scheme in Africa and the second largest in the world. The Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology commended the President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for standing behind this effort and seeing to its fruition.

Commenting further, Dr Bukola Saraki said credit must also go to the Minister of Environment, the government of Zamfara State especially the commissioner for the Environment Zamfara State, Messr. Telegraphics, Doctors without Borders (MSF), Online community that rallied support for#SaveBagega and all those who showed relentless commitment to ensure that we save the lives of the children of Zamfara ensuring that they have another chance on life again.

Saraki acknowledged that the success achieved thus far should not signal an end of the process. He tasked everyone to pull together and ensure that this success is not eroded by first making sure that the treatment of the children already affected is sustained. This, he said can only be done by enabling MSF (Doctors without Borders) train health workers within the state and beyond to take charge and continue from where they stop.

The Senator categorically said “We must as part of laying out the enabling structures, train these miners on safer mining techniques and improve access to the right technology that is safe for this kind of activity”.

Proffering solution to the aforementioned, Saraki suggested the need for the National Assembly to amend the Solid Minerals Act 2007 to expand access to and registration of artisanal miners. This he reckoned will enable these miners form cooperative societies, have access to finance and be involved in the training on safer mining. Stating that this will help provide more job opportunities for our people, reduce the incidences of unsafe mining and capture the market in terms of taxation and revenue to the government.

In a similar development, you will recall that the Senator had earlier donated the sum of 500,00Naira to help develop Bagega’s community cooperative thrift.

Finally, the Distinguished Senator expressed his deep appreciation for the recognition by terragraphics international as a catalyst to spur him to take further action on issues affecting the nation. He dedicated the award certificate to everyone that lent a hand to the #SaveBagegaproject.

culled from Bailiff Africa