FEMA proffers solutions to flooding in FCT

The FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has devised different strategies to reduce and check flooding and its effects on lives and property of FCT residents. The Director General, FEMA, Alhaji Abbas Idriss made this known in an interview recently.

"We are working seriously with our stakeholders, especially the Urban & Regional Planning and Development Control Departments as well as other agencies to make sure they take care of any infraction that could lead to a flood. This is why you see demolitions going on in the FCT; this is to ensure that no waterway is blocked" he said.

"Everybody is a stakeholder in this, we must be able to own up and take care of our environment and protect it" he said. Alhaji Idriss urged FCT residents to desist from encroaching into green areas and water ways to prevent flooding. He also informed that dumping of refuse into drainage could lead to flash floods as flash flooding is a more dangerous type of flooding because it builds up within seconds" he explained.

The FEMA boss disclosed that the agency had heavily invested in sensitization of the public. One of the ways the agency had done this according to Idriss was to make use of community town criers to help spread awareness in languages of their community. Idriss complained that flood casualties were often the elite and it is as a result of negligence of warnings. He advised residents of the FCT to adhere to instructions given to preserve life and property.