The former President of Malawi, Dr Joyce Banda, has indicated her interest to study how the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was able to record zero death during the 2022 flooding.
The Head, of Public Affairs, FEMA, Ms. Nkechi Isa, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, said Banda, said this when she met with the Director-General of the agency, Dr. Abbas Idriss.
Banda, also the ambassador for Climate Change and Justice, commended FEMA for its efforts in mitigating flooding in the nation’s capital.
She said Malawi and the FCT had faced similar climatic conditions in 2022, adding that heavy floods and Cyclone Freddy devastated Malawi, killing scores of people and displacing 2 million people.
Banda said that Malawi required 700 billion dollars to recover infrastructure damaged by the floods.
She lamented that the whole of Africa was paying the price of climate change.
“The people that were swept away by heavy floods on March 11, 2022, in Malawi were ignorant people, who did not contribute to global warming.
“The global north and global south must sit down and address climate change. The North must invest to fight climate change.”
Responding, the FEMA boss, Idriss, said that devastating floods in 2022 claimed about 600 lives in the country, but no lives were lost in the FCT.
He attributed the achievements to several assessment visits to flood-affected areas conducted by the agency immediately after the rains.
“In some places, it could be due to infrastructure decay, the box culvert is too small causing overflooding. The general cause of flooding in the FCT is human-induced.
“Building on waterways, erection of embarkment on the back of a river thereby blocking the free flow of water.
“When we carry out assessment and determine the cause of the flood we bring all the stakeholders together; the department of engineering, town planners, urban and regional planning.”
The DG said that the agency plans to bring in estate developers, “because sometimes the floods occur within an estate.”
Idriss said that the FCT Administration was working out modalities to mandate developers who engage in infractions to pay for the removal of such structures.
He listed education, sensitization, and engagement of residents, particularly through town hall meetings as some of the measures adopted to mitigate flooding in the FCT.
“Others are strengthening of local emergency councils, training of local divers on modern rescue techniques, emergency Marshalls, regular de-silting of drainages and blockage of dangerous slip roads.
“Similarly, we also mount billboards in flood-prone areas and deploy drones for aerial surveys of flood-prone areas.”
