Flood: House of Representative Urges FG to Request for supplementary Budge
Track Up News
15November 2022
The House of Representatives has urged the federal government to make an urgent request for supplementary budget of N100 billion or more for Ecological Project Office, EPO, as intervention fund to execute the programs of the agency nationwide.
It equally asked that N5 billion be released into the already created special ecological fund account of each state of the federation and FCT to mitigate the effect of flooding that recently ravaged the entire nation.
The resolutions became necessary when a motion, titled “Need for Strategic Planning and Funding to Prevent the Reoccurrence of Flood and Erosion Disasters in Nigeria in 2023 and Beyond”, was moved by Henry Nwawuba and Ibrahim Isiaka at plenary under matters of urgent public importance .
Presenting the motion, Nwawuba and Isiaka expressed worry over the recent flooding incident that ravaged the country and blamed that the warning by the authorities was not heeded.
They advised the relevant the authorities to take proactive measures to tackle the next round of flooding with special reference the prediction by the Nigerian Metrological Agency, Nimet.
They added that strategic planning and adequate funding will help mitigate the effects and facilitate quick and better recovery of lives, properties, economy and overall environment.
The house however mandated its Committee on Appropriation to make provision of N200 billion in the 20023 appropriation year, for the Ecological office in the Presidency for flood preparedness, mitigation, response, recovery and relieve packages.
It will be recalled that in January 2022, the Nigerian Metrological Agency, Nimet, warned of impending floods across most states in Nigeria, especially flood prone areas and could continue until the end of November 2022 in many states across the nation.
Report says the year 2012 flood affected 32 states out of 36 states with 363 people killed, over 2.1 million people displaced, about 7 million people affected and a total loss estimate of N2.6trillion recorded while 33 of 36 states and the FCT are affected in 2022 making it 92% of the entire country.
It further say that over 600 people killed, over 1.4 million people displaced and over 2.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance with over 60% of this number being children and Nigeria appears to be unready for climate change with ranking of 162 of 180 countries in the environment performance index.
Adopting the motion, the House mandated its committee on legislative agenda to coordinate a technical working group between the executive and legislature as well as industrial experts and stakeholders to articulate an action plan to forestall a repeat of such flood and erosion disaster in 2023 and beyond.
Punchonline
