NEMA cautions against building on water ways

Mustapha Maihaja, director-general of the National Emergency Management Agency(nema), has said that building on water ways was a deathtrap and could cause a disaster, warning state government agencies in charge of building control to desist from giving approvals to build on water ways.

He urged state governors to muster the political will and courage to demolish such buildings erected on the water ways, stressing that the situation calls for urgent attention.

The director general spoke through the Enugu Zonal Coordinator of the Agency, Fred Anusim who represented him in a capacity building retreat in Imo which was organised by the NEMA staff.

Speaking on the theme ‘Re-engineering the Agency for Efficiency and Proactive Disaster Management’, the DG observed that if the water ways are blocked, there will

definitely be flooding in the area because the water will find another channel or direction.

He said there was also the need for stronger synergy between NEMA and other disaster stakeholders in disaster management.

Mustapha informed that his leadership was repositioning the agency to meet international standard, but warned that disaster management is everybody’s business.

According to him, “The essence of the retreat was to raise the capacity of NEMA staff to enable them do the humanitarian job with passion. We have organised this retreat across zones for our staff to enable them see themselves as humanitarian workers who have been called to serve the people”. According to him, “Monitoring and evaluation, better condition of service and provision of search and rescue were key to disaster management.”

Evans Ugoh, coordinator of Imo/abia operations office of the agency, urged the government to muster political courage in addressing the issue of flooding in Imo.