The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) has stated that it will soon release its Annual Flood Outlook (AFO) to sensitise the general public on the level of flooding expected in 2019.
Mr Clement Nze, the Director-General of the agency, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
The significance of the programme, Nze said was to alert Nigerians by providing information on the rising and overflow of water bodies especially from riverine to normally dry land during the rainy season.
“This agency releases the Annual Flood Outlook (AFO), which is the scientific tool it has devised since 2013, whereby, before the proper onset of the rains, we come up with the prediction releases on what the flooding season will look like.
“So, the agency has been working assiduously to come up with the 2019 Annual Flood Outlook prediction and hopefully around the second week of April, it will be made public.
“And, when we do that, we will begin to move from city to city to downscale what we have said.
“We use local languages, print pamphlets and distribute to the public. We also do a kind of road show like we did in Ibadan, Kaduna, Awka and so many other cities.’’
The NIHSA DG assured Nigerians of the agency’s commitment to early sensitisation, to enable the general public take precautions on flooding in the course of the rains.
He said the agency would collaborate with the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, State Emergency Management Agencies, SEMA, the media and other relevant organisations to carry out the sensitisation on flooding.
He, however, appealed for more funding from the Federal Government to enable the agency install all necessary facilities for the monitoring of flooding as the rainy season approaches.
