EU commits €70,000 to combat floods in Nigeria

The European Union (EU) has provided €70,000 as emergency preparedness to reduce the impact of floods in Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement by the body on Tuesday. The funding is to support the Nigerian Red Cross Society to increase its capacity and preparedness to reduce the impact of likely floods in Ondo, Kogi, Kebbi, Anambra, and Cross River States.

According to the EU, “This will be done through increased community awareness, prepositioning of stocks, mapping of evacuation centres and hygiene promotion. It is expected that this support directly benefits 10,000 people and, indirectly, around 25,000 more.”

It added that the funding was part of the EU’s overall contribution to the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

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“In the past decade, especially during the last three years, there has been an observed pattern of flooding in Nigeria, with floods becoming the second most recurrent hazard affecting the country, after the epidemics.

“The high flooding period generally recorded from August to October is usually characterised by the collapse of major dams, overflow of riverbanks and heavy occupation of residential areas or the environment by large masses of water due to heavy flow of run-off rainwater,” the EU observed in the statement.

The union noted that these trends were showing the necessity to anticipate the forecasted hazards and contributed much earlier to the preparedness in the area at risk.

As such, it said that the Nigeria Red Cross Society would take preventive measures to prepare for the anticipated impact that these events could have on the humanitarian situation before the flood season would hit the country.