Flood kills 16 people, destroys 3,834 houses in Jigawa
By: Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse
The Jigawa State Emergency and Management Agency (SEMA) says 16 people have been confirmed dead following the recent flood that ravaged communities in about 10 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
The Executive Secretary of the agency, Dr Haruna Mairiga said this when he fielded reporter’s questions in Dutse on Wednesday.
Mairiga said over 3,834 families had also been rendered homeless as 2,744 hectares of land was washed away by the flood.
He said that the State Government had created Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in primary schools in all the 10 affected LGAs.
The executive secretary said that this year’s flooding came as a surprise to the government.
“Eventhough NiMET, predicted the occurrence of the disaster, “but it started earlier that the predicted time,” he said.
Mairiga said that the affected LGAs included Buji, Kafin Hausa, Auyo, Hadejia, Birniwa, Gwaram, Malam Madori, Garki, Taura, Suletankarkar, Kaugama and Dutse.
“Some of the victims aree squatting with their relatives,” he said.
Mairiga said that the government through the agency took some immediate action to mitigate the effect of the flood by dispatching some personal to take the statistics of the levels of damage.
“At the same time we are distributing relief materials to the victims,” he said.
He stated that the agency had distributed relief materials to the affected victims including rice 400 bags, spaghetti 400 cartons, maize, mosquito nets and sacks for embarkment nets among others.
Mairiga added that the government had established an emergency committee making the state government to be the first to establish same.
“The Gov. Umar Namadi led administration has equipped us with all necessary materials and logistics. “We have enough relief materials for onward distribution to the affected victims despite the fact that some of our warehouses have been vandalised and looted by miscreants during the nationwide protest early this month,” he said.
He commended the governor for his timely intervention to assist the affected victims across the state.
