21 LGs, 382 Communities Affected by Flood in Niger, Says NSEMA

* 40 deaths recorded

Laleye Dipo in Minna

The Niger State Government has given details of the effect of this year’s flood which it said affected 21 out of the 25 local governments in the state.

The government also disclosed that 50,000 people in 382 communities in the 21 local councils were seriously affected by the flood.

Giving the report Tuesday, at the flag-off of the distribution of relief materials to the flood victims at Kuchiwiro in Lavun Local Government Area, the Director General of the State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Inga, regretted that 40 lives were lost to the flood caused by heavy rainfall and the opening of the spill way gates of the three dams in the state.

Inga commiserated with the victims over the losses suffered due to the ravaging flood and assured them that the agency, with the support of the national body NEMA, as well as the state government will not rest on its oars in providing palliative measures to ease the hardship they are currently facing.

He advised the people to take advantage of the state government’s agriculture  policy, especially as it relates to dry season farming to make up for the losses recorded during the wet season cropping.

“The State Emergency Management Agency and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) will continue to provide succour to communities affected by the flood,” Inga declared.

Items distributed to the victims included several bags of rice, maize, beans, groundnut and jerry cans of red oil, while non-food items such as mattresses, buckets, clothing materials, cups and baby diapers were presented to the community.

The beneficiaries were unanimous in  expressing gratitude to the government for its humanitarian gesture, but said they will need more assistance because they have lost all they had to the flood.