The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, says the Federal Government has distributed relief items to 21 states affected by flood.

Farouq made this known at a press briefing to keep the public abreast of response and interventions made so far by the ministry and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on flooding across the country.

The minister stated that distribution of food and non-food items to other states were already ongoing.

“A total of 21 States have received relief materials so far. These States are Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Enugu, FCT, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Lagos, Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo , Sokoto, Taraba, and Yobe.

“While specialised teams are on ground, there are still some states and local governments that are inaccessible and hard to reach.

“To address this, we are working with the Military Disaster Response Units and other stakeholders with specialised skills and equipment to ensure that we use other means to reach hard-to-reach areas and people at risk.

“Distribution to other states affected by floods in Nigeria is ongoing. The materials being distributed are emergency food items and non-food items including rice, maize, garri, vegetable oil, tin of tomatoes, seasoning, and beans.

“The non-food items are materials used to assist with temporary shelters for displaced communities including roofing sheets, cement, nails, ceiling boards, blankets, nylon mats, and zinc,” Farouq said.

The minister added that search and rescue operations have been ongoing since flooding started.

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“We hope that other Ministries, Departments and Agencies such as Water Resources, Health, Works and Housing, Agriculture and Environment will join us in the next briefing with their own updates on operations to resolve this emergency we are facing.

“I also implore government at all levels, especially state and local governments to share information with us and also play their role in the response, in line with the National Flood Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan.

“I commend local communities for their resilience. We received a report that in 144 LGAs, local communities worked together to provide the first response to their families and neighbours.

“The search and rescue team, which is responsible for evacuating people and providing life-saving first aid and medical support and referrals to hospitals has so far been able to reach 199 local government areas within 25 states.

“These operations are ongoing and I urge communities at risk to adhere to warnings and instructions issued by these teams as they work to protect and save lives,” Farouq stated.

As of October 24, 2022, 3,219,780 persons were affected by floods in 2022.

According to NEMA, 1,427,370 persons have been internally displaced, 2,776 persons were injured, 612 people lost their lives, 181,600 houses were partially damaged, another 123,807 houses totally damaged, 176,852 hectares of farmlands were partially damaged, while 392,399 hectares of farmlands were totally damaged.

The Star