Food and water shortage will increase in Nigeria, NEMA warned.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) warned Nigerians to brace up because of the rising food and water shortages due to frequent changes in weather patterns.
This warning was sounded by The Director-General of the Agency, Air Vice Marshall Mohammadu Mohammed at a capacity building for NEMA and other stakeholders on Integrated Climate Change and COVID-19 vulnerability and adaptation planning for disaster risk management.
The Director-General in his address said Nigeria would continue to depend on subsistence agriculture as a result of frequent climate change.
In his words, he said: “Increased drought in some regions will likely lead to land degradation, damage to crops or reduced yields, more livestock deaths, and an increased risk of wildfire. Such conditions will increase the risk for populations dependent on subsistence agriculture.”
Mohammed also made known that the further effect of the changing weather conditions would be food and water shortage and higher incidence of malnutrition, water-borne and food-borne diseases. And may also lead to displacements of population. The increased frequency of high precipitation, according to the DG, in some regions would trigger floods and landslides with the potential loss of lives and properties.
He also noted that we have to publicly adapt to the new situation or we suffer the consequences as the risk and dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change vulnerability have given the warning.
In addition, the International Federation of Red Cross Society has revealed that not less than 158 fatalities were in record across 22 states during the 2020 flood disaster that battered the country.
The agency furthermore revealed that close to 193,000 people were affected, 826 injured and 134,000 people have so far been displaced from their homes.
The ECOWAS Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender, Dr Fatima Jagne, WHO quoted the statistics, reflected concern over the development, saying Nigeria is the worst affected country in the region with natural disaster and human-induced calamity, as the combination of the disasters has led to massive economic losses and avoidable human death.
It was noted by the ECOWAS commissioner that the changing weather patterns would thwart development and sustainability. And it is therefore essential that for execution and adaptation actions, the capacity of disaster risk managers at the local and national level be bolstered.
The countries in the West African region were currently tussling with multiple challenges of various risk disasters caused by climate change and variability in the susceptible communities, she lamented. She added that the condition was further worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
She pointed out that the adverse effect on the economies and people of the sub-region, coupled with the unusual effect of draught erosion, has made the ECOWAS revise its disaster management plan, with a new plan of action 2015–2030. She said this was in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015–2030.
The ECOWAS chairman obliged the member states to be more responsible in the security of lives and properties of their citizen, and in satisfying the needs of their population before and after the disaster.
