21 Niger LGAs, 382 Communities Affected by Flood

Laleye Dipo in Minna

The Niger State Government last Tuesday gave details of the effect of this year’s flood, which it said affected 21 out of the 25 local government areas of the state.

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

Giving the report at the flag-off of the distribution of relief materials to victims in 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 rains 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 ravaging flood and assured them that the agency, with the support of the national body NEMA, as well as the state government would 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 agricultural policy, especially as it relates to dry season farming, to make up for the losses recorded during the wet season cropping.

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

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

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