By Ikeugonna Eleke
The Anambra State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) says Anambra has been listed among 20 states that will experience heavy flood this year.
Already, the group has begun sensitization of indigenes of some of the areas listed by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency to ensure they are fully equipped, and ready to evacuate at a short notice.
The Executive Secretary, SEMA, Chief Paul Odenigbo, who led the sensitization campaign, urged affected communities to prepare as this year’s flooding could be slightly above normal.
The areas listed among those to experience the 2020 flood include; Ayamelum, Awka North, Anambra East, Anambra West, Ogbaru and Ihiala Local Government Areas.
Chief Odenigbo said Anambra would be among 14 states to experience flooding in 2020 as the predictions were always near accurate.
‘The upcoming floodwaters would have impact on farmers and people living across riverine areas of the state.
‘The cause of the flooding might not necessarily come from heavy rains here in Anambra, but from the Northern parts of the country, particularly the upper Niger River.
`It was predicted in 2012 that there will be flooding and it happened. We have come to tell you to prepare yourselves so this year’s flooding does not come as a surprise,’ said Odenigbo.
He urged farmers to liaise with the Ministry of Agriculture to invest in crops whose maturity duration would be shorter, so that they could harvest within a period of three months before the flooding would arrive.
He pleaded with members of communities to desist from building on water ways in order not to distort the channeling of floodwaters; saying flooding could bring down structures or weaken them, rendering them to be far more dangerous.
