The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency on Monday announced that there would be flooding in 14 states and urged residents living in flood-prone areas of the states to relocate.
According to the agency, most cities would experience heavy floods due to the rise in sea levels and tidal surge.
The agency added that Lagos, Rivers, Calabar, Benue, Sokoto, Anambra, Imo, Cross River, Yobe, Ogun, Osun, Kaduna, Oyo and Yola were the states that would be affected by flooding this year.
The Director-General, NIHSA, Mr. Moses Beckley, said this during the public presentation of the 2016 Annual Flood Outlook in Abuja and warned that this year’s flooding would be higher than the one experienced in 2015.
He said, “The expected inflows in the country for this year will be lower than that of 2012. Meanwhile, the predicted probable flood area coverage in 2016 is expected to be higher than the predicted probable flood as well as the observed value of 2015.
“The expected areas of river flooding this year are located in the following river basins, Niger, Benue, Sokoto-Rima, Anambra-Imo, Cross River, Niger Delta, Komadougu-Yobe, Ogun-Osun and several other sub-basins of the country.
“Some coastal areas such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar, etc, are expected to experience flooding due to rise in sea level and tidal surge, while flash and urban flooding are likely to occur in Sokoto, Ibadan, Kaduna, Yola, Maiduguri, Makurdi, Hadejia and settlements/cities along the Nigeria coastal line.”
NIHSA urged those living along those places to keep safe distances and “those in the areas where you have dams constructed to also be careful about erecting structures close to where the dams was.”
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