As the rainy season gets underway, the Plateau State Government says it has placed seven local government areas on red alert to prevent flooding.
The Commissioner for Environment, Mr Yakubu Usman, disclosed this in an interview with Newsmen in Jos on Monday.
Usman said the action was based on the report that the state government received from the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency.
The commissioner, who stated that the development called for caution on the part of residents, named the flood-prone council areas as Mangu, Bokkos, Wase, Langtang North, Jos North, Jos South and Shendam.
He, however, said the government had taken preventive steps as well as rolled out mitigation measures to respond to any possible disaster that might occur as a result of flooding.
The commissioner stated, “For the past two weeks, our men and the Task Force on Environment have been working on most of the major drainages in the city of Jos and its environs.
“We have asked the various local government areas in the state to do the same and clear the drainages, because the Nigeria hydrological services’ report captures about seven LGAs as prone to flooding and we have sent out the report to them. And those in high risk areas include Mangu, Bokkos, Wase, Langtang North, Jos North, Jos South and Shendam.
“The council areas need to work on their drainages to remove any forms of blockage, because that is the major cause of flooding”
Similarly, the Imo State Government, on Monday, announced that it had activated processes to stop flooding in Owerri, the state capital.
The Commissioner for Works, Ralph Nwosu, said in a statement he personally signed that the state government empathised with residents, who were affected by Sunday’s flooding after a downpour.
The statement, which was titled, ‘Flooding: Okigwe Road, Bank Road, World Bank/Umuguma Road Chukwuma Nwoha and Federal Housing axis: We already have in place control measures’, said construction works to stop flooding had begun.
The statement read in part, “The attention of the Commissioner for Works, Ralph Nwosu, has been drawn to the flooding of some major streets in Owerri metropolis as occasioned by the heavy downpour of yesterday, July 4, 2021.