Food crisis imminent –FG

September 27, 2012 by Adelani Adepegba, Everest Amaefule and Olalekan Adetayo  

 

The Federal Government on Wednesday raised the alarm over an imminent national food crisis as a result of flooding in some parts of the country.

It said that over 5,000 farmlands had been washed away by the ravaging floods across the country and described the situation as a national emergency.

At the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Mailafia, who briefed journalists, also said the government was worried about the health implications of the floods.

“The consequences (of the flood) is that there are huge losses of farmlands, there are likely threats to food security. We are likely going to have challenges that have to do with the health of the people in some areas. In the estimation of the government, over 5,000 farmlands were washed away by the ravaging flood across the country” Mailafia said.

The minister who was joined at the briefing by four other ministers,  Labaran Maku (Information); Mr. Mike Onolememen (Works); Senator Idris Umar (Transport) and Nyesom Wike (State, Education); however described the Kogi State flood disaster as the worst.

Meanwhile, Mailafia’s counterpart in the Water Resources ministry, Sarah Ochekpe, during a visit to The Punch Place, head office of Punch Nigeria Limited, on Tuesday had warned that incidences of flooding would persist till November.

 Impassable roads

The environment minister said members of the presidential committee on a mission to ascertain the impact of the Kogi flooding were confronted by impassable roads, submerged government infrastructure and traumatised people in the state.

 She said the Kogi disaster was not what could be predicted, submitting that nobody could blame the government for inaction.

 “The flooding we are experiencing in the country do not in any way fall into what you can term man-made.

“This is a natural phenomenon that cuts across the globe. With the technology in places like the United States, China, and even the neighbouring country, Niger with an arid land, they still have cases of flooding.

“For anyone to think that government has not done well or that there was something that we needed to do that we have not done is a bit awesome because there is a limit to which you can fight nature.

“Where you have in a country where well over 5,000 farmlands were washed away, then there is cause for attention. It is of national interest. So, all what we are saying is that it is a national emergency. It calls for sober reflection.”

With flooded schools, Mailafia added that the flood would also affect the school calendar in the affected parts of the country.

On the specific case of Kogi flood that has rendered the Lokoja-Abuja Road impassable, she said that the government had mobilised Julius Berger, Dantata and Sawoe, and RCC to the disaster site. She added that  the alternative route being constructed for motorists plying the closed Lokoja-Abuja Road would be ready on Thursday (today).

On the criticism that the government team only did aerial assessment of the impact of the flood, Mailafia argued that there was no way the chopper used for the assessment could land in a state like Plateau because of the magnitude of the flood.

“Some people said why did we fly? We could not have landed on water and there was a limit to where we could drive,” she explained.

The minister also warned other states to be prepared because while the water will be finding its way into the Atlantic Ocean, it would pass through some states of the federation.

She said in a couple of days, the team would also be visiting some other states on the same matter.

 The Federal Government has suspended the Kogi State leg of the National Good Governance Tour which started with the Federal Capital Territory last week.

Maku said the team ought to have visited Kogi immediately after the FCT tour but could not do so due to the challenge posed by the flood and that the team had decided to give the government and people of the state time to recover.

Instead of moving to Kogi, the minister said the team would now go to Kwara State next week and from there visit other North Central States.

 Burglars loot homes

Meanwhile, buglars operating in canoes have reportedly looted many homes deserted in the wake of the floods that have displaced thousands of residents.

The state emergency management agency on Tuesday put the number of displaced persons at 73,000.

A victim of the flood, Mrs. Rachael Ajayi, told one of our correspondents on Wednesday that she learnt that thieves had looted her abandoned home in the Andankolo area of Lokoja, the state capital.

 “I only managed to pack the fridge, chairs, clothes and other few things,” Ajayi, who currently stays at the flood victims’ camp inside St. Louis Primary School, Andankolo, said. She said she had heard from two different sources that flooded home were being looted by thieves who used canoes.

A foodstuff dealer, Madam Jummai Abdulkadir also expressed fears that her home might have been looted; she said she left her submerged residence at midnight with only a wrapper and few cooking utensils.

She explained that she could not go back to her house to check if her property were still intact because the water was yet to recede.

 ‘Govs ignore warnings’

Director General of the Nigerian Metrological Agency, Dr. Anthony Anuforom, said at a press briefing on Wednesday that some governors and other stakeholders ignored early warnings issued by the agency.

Anoforom advocated for a new policy framework for adopting weather and climate information for planning purposes and precautionary measures.

The NIMET boss said in addition to its Rainfall Prediction for 2012 released on March 1, it specifically wrote to some states between August 3 and 6 to say that the soil moisture had been saturated in those states and could be subjected to flooding.

Although Anuforom said several factors could have impeded the concerned states from taking adequate action, he added that the nation had not learnt how to use weather and climate information to avoid disasters.

He, however, refused to mention the states that received the NIMET’s warning letters.

 Flood alert

Anuforom said, “In the course of regular monitoring of the trend of weather/climate conditions across the country, NIMET had predicted that different parts of the country that were likely to experience flooding.

“On 3rd August 2012, the agency wrote to the governors of some states informing them that based on our observations and predictions, their areas were most vulnerable.

“Extreme weather events, such as the flooding we have recently witnessed in the country, have continued to pose significant threat to achieving our national goals in agriculture, road construction, housing, health conservation of the environment.”

 Low application

The NIMET boss added, “Scientists have predicted that the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are likely to increase due to climate change. This underscores the need for the application of early warning weather and climate information provided by NIMET in planning and decision-making in these vital sectors of the economy.

“We will like to state that despite the efforts of NIMET in recent years to create the necessary awareness, the level of application of the early warning weather and climate information in these economic sectors in Nigeria is still low.

“There   is therefore need to go for an enduring policy framework for the application of the weather and climate information provided by NIMET in the transformation by NIMET in the activities of such sectors as agriculture, construction, marine, power, transmission, and distribution, telecommunication, and marine transportation all of which are very sensitive to weather and climate.”

Anuforom said at the global level, the United Nation’s organ for climate change, World Metrological Organisation, had since 2009 evolved a framework to drive the collaboration between non-governmental organisations and agencies to disseminate information generated by metrological agencies.

He praised the Lagos State Government for taking proactive steps in warning residents about the implications of the rainfall predictions as soon as they were released.

He also expressed hope that other states would emulate the steps taken by Lagos, adding that the state had been able to avoid the catastrophe that could result from flooding this year because of the proactive measures that was taken by the government.

 Violent winds

On the outlook for the rest of the year, Anuforom said as the rains begin to recede, it could come with violent winds in some cities, advising people to avoid staying under trees as well as electricity poles in such circumstances.

“Whether we like it or not, weather must do what it does but God has given us knowledge to take precaution. The proper thing is to take precaution. Take the early warning information,” he said.

Acknowledging the limitation of predictions, Anuforom said NIMET had been cautious because human knowledge and technologies had their limitations.

However, he warned that Nigerians must avoid the prevalent attitude of not paying attention to data, scientific information as well as the attitude of blocking drainages and distorting urban plans.

SOURCE: http://www.punchng.com/  27 September 20012.