The Executive Secretary, State Emergency Management Agency, Chief Paul Odenigbo, stated this during training for local emergency management committees and some health workers in all the 10 flood-prone local government areas of the state held at Anambra East headquarters, Otuocha on Saturday.
Odenigbo, who was represented by an administrative officer in the agency, Mrs Rita Omega, said the training was part of the preparations given the predictions made by relevant agencies that there will be floods in about 32 states of the country, including Anambra.
He noted that the agency had carried out sensitisation in all the riverine areas while urging the people to be prepared to relocate to higher grounds whenever they are called to do so as adequate arrangements had been made for them.
The representative of the National Emergency Management Agency, Enugu Zone, Mr Kennedy Eke, in his reactions, urged the personnel and other relevant stakeholders in the various riverine areas to be on the alert
Eke urged them to ensure that they notify the state and federal agencies whenever they get notifications of an increase in water level.
The Transition Committee Chairman, Anambra East Local Government Area, Dr Anselem Onuorah, said the council was making adequate arrangements to ensure that lapses observed during the 2022 flood incident were corrected, especially in the area of hygiene and medical care to the victims in the camps.
Oniorah added that the local government had concluded plans to engage volunteer health workers who will assist in the provision of services especially to nursing mothers and pregnant women as well as children and aged persons.
The Assistant Field Coordinator, International Organisation for Migration in Anambra State, Mr Hezekiah Samuel, said the essence of the training was to equip the person with the relevant knowledge they needed in other to be able to act as first responders during flood outbreaks in their localities.
The highlight of the training was a demonstration of the first responder’s action to evacuate flood victims, which was presented by a team from the Nigeria Red Cross Society.
