The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has called on stakeholders in disaster management to redouble efforts on tackling disaster risk drivers in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states.
This is contained in a statement signed by the Zonal Head, NEMA Operations Office, Alhaji Aliyu Kafindangi, and made available to newsmen on Friday, October 13, 2023, in Sokoto, the Sokoto State capital.
Kafindangi urged policy makers in the states and local governments to work towards awareness on disaster prevention as well as reducing the consequences of poverty and inequalities.
He said that it was important to join the world in the efforts of reducing disaster risk to mitigate or forestall occurrences of disasters, their effects on the environment and the people.
The zonal head said that the call was in line with the 2023 theme for the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, which is: “Fighting Inequality for a Resilient Future”.
Kafindangi said: “The theme comes in the context of growing disaster risk, which is further exacerbating inequality and deepening vulnerability.
“This call becomes necessary in the face of threatening Global Climate Disaster prospects that predicts 560 disasters per year from the year 2030.
“And the current trajectory implies 1.5 significant disaster will happen per day from 2030.”
He added that there was a reciprocal relationship between disasters and inequality, saying: “As inequality and disaster vulnerability are two sides of the same coin.”
Kafindangi said that majority of countries that faced high disaster risk were also among those with the highest share of the population living under the national poverty line.
He added: “Within countries and communities, inequality is equally powerful in determining who suffers from a disaster.
“Impoverished people are more likely to live in hazard exposed areas and less able to invest in risk reducing measures, they often have low quality and insecure housing.”
Kafindangi underscored the importance of building the capacities of communities to be resilient in the face of the looming disasters as prevention was always better and cheaper than cure.
He enjoined community and religious leaders as well as community-based organisations to join global efforts of reducing inequality.
This, he said, should be done through practical policies and measures that would open access to improved standard of living of the people.
By Habibu Harisu
