Mr Ishaku made this known in Bauchi on Thursday during a stakeholders meeting organised by Gombe operation of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, tagged: “Stakeholders Capacity Development And Coordination Meeting.”
“The 2019 NiMET bulletin predicted flood in some Northern states of Nigeria and Bauchi was not left out of the flood consequences.
“However, we are not adequately making use of NiMET seasonal rainfall prediction bulletin,or never use it for practice and warning in our history.
“This is a big reason, among others, why we are faced with serious devastation in recent rain storms and rainfall distribution.
“Communities living on low land where the destruction was most pronounced, refused to take warning and relocate in good time,” ishaku said.
The weather. expert also said people’s habits of dumping waste and building of structures on water ways were not discouraged in the state, hence, the environmental disasters.
“Our habits of dumping waste and erection of structures on water ways are not discouraged as such we have already seen the result of our actions,” he said.
He called for good use, practice and implementation of the NiMET seasonal rainfall prediction bulletin in order to heed to early warning.
Speaking to newsmen on the sideline of the meeting, NEMA’s head of operations in Gombe State, Simon Katu, said the stakeholders meeting was a quarterly exercise which NEMA organised for stakeholders.
He said participants usually deliberate on issues of disaster management, development and capacity building,and also map out ways to move forward in periods of disaster.
Mr Katu said the meeting was also to look at the 2019 floods ravaging many places and suggest proactive measures of handling such disasters in future.
He said NEMA was currently visiting places ravaged by the recent flood in Bauchi state, adding that 10 Local Government Areas had already been visited to assess the situation and come up with a comprehensive report.
NAN
