Minister of Environment Highlights Efforts to Combat Flooding, Seeks Collaboration and Support
The Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, has highlighted the Ministry’s efforts to combat flooding, while seeking collaboration and support from relevant agencies to achieve lasting solutions.
Balarabe disclosed this in Abuja recently when he received members of the House of Representative Ad-hoc Committee on Flooding, led by its Chairman, Hon. Dr. Mandala Usman
The Minister highlighted that flooding is sensitive, worrisome, and often times man-made, requiring citizens’ collective efforts to find lasting short, medium, and long-term solutions.
According to him, the Ministry has deployed many policies to prevent and control the effect of flooding on communities across the country.
These he stated, include: Afforestation Programme, National Clean Cooking Policy, National Adaptation Policy, Early Warning Alert, Sensitization on the dangers of flooding, Enforcement of environmental laws, Training and retraining of professional officers as well as Installation of modern equipments, among others.
Lawal stated further that flooding can be controlled through rain harvest, as practiced in China, maintenance and building of more dams, creation of water channels, establishment of more flood laboratories, banning of single plastic use, regular maintenance of drainage system nationwide, water management, planting of trees, introduction of insurance cover, as well as publicity of the dangers of flooding through public awareness.
The Minister urged the National Assembly to ensure that state Governors and FCT Administrations adhere to the implementation of the Land Use Act and halt the conversion of forest reserves and waterways into residential or commercial quarters.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mahmud Adam, appealed for National Assembly support through increased funding to enable it curtail the devastating effects of flooding in the country.
Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc Committee on Flood, Hon. Dr. Mandala Usman disclosed that the team was in the Ministry to ascertain the policies so far adopted by environmental bodies to control flooding in the past and present
The Chairman also asked for the reintroduction of National Sanitation Day, Planting of more trees, Collaboration with state Governors for utilization of ecological funds, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to avoid the blocking of water ways and encroachment into forest reserve, Enforcement of Environmental Laws, Sustaining Advocacy with relevant agencies, Attracting local as well as International support and Carbon Credit.
He assured the Ministry of their periodic visitation to evaluate its efforts towards preventing further occurrences of flooding nationwide.
