Date: 2012-03-15

The National Emergency Management Agency has said that flood disaster in the country in 2010 affected 23 states of the federation and killed about 1,555 people, while over N50 billion was lost to fire incident in 22 states.

Mr. Ishaya Isah Chonko, Coordinator, Abuja Operations Office of the agency gave the statistics while inaugurating Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Clubs in four selected schools in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

The Schools include Queen Elizabeth, Barakat Community Secondary School, LGEA School, Ipata and Pake LGEA.

The ceremony was held at Queen's School where teachers were trained on basic First Aid, fire prevention and fire fighting techniques by NEMA's key stakeholders to include Red Cross, Road Safety and Fire Services.

Chonoko noted that "disasters today are increasing in frequency and severity with negative consequences such as death, injury and loss of property".

He added that road traffic accidents were on the increase with high rate of fatality.

According to him, cases of cholera, cerebrospinal meningitis, and diarrhea were on the increase, noting that if the disasters cannot be totally eradicated, the damage they caused can be significantly mitigated.

He said it was for that reason the agency decided to take the DRR campaign to schools.

Chonoko said children are among the most exposed groups during disasters, saying that learning about disaster risk reduction in primary and secondary schools would help to play a greater role in as saving lives and protecting members of the community as well as their property.

He called on stakeholders, including Head Teachers, Principals and parents to give moral support to the cubs to ensure their sustenance and the projection their ideals.

Earlier, Special Adviser to the Governor on Emergency and Relief Services, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi, had lauded the initiative, with the assurance that another set of schools would be copted in the next three months.

The programme was jointly organized by NEMA and the State Emergency Committee, with the selected schools pilot for general take-off across the state.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 122 victims affected by recent fire disasters in six local government areas of the state were given relief materials by NEMA to complement the earlier intervention by the state government.

The items include rice, millets, bags of cement, mattresses, sugar, and soap among others.