NEMA Raises Alarm Over 2025 Flood Threats, Rolls Out Early Warning, Response Strategies

The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Zubaida Umar, has issued warning on the looming threat of floods across Nigeria in the 2025 rainy season, and called for urgent and collective action of all tiers of government, stakeholders, and citizens to take immediate action.

She disclosed this on Thursday during stakeholders’ engagement on the 2025 National Preparedness and Response Campaign (NPRC) on Flood Disaster and Related Hazards held at the CSEA Centre, Mabushi, Abuja.

Describing floods as one of the most destructive recurring disasters in Nigeria, Umar said their impacts have continued to wreak havoc on lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure, with losses running into billions of naira.

She noted that many Nigerians have been injured, displaced, and forced into poverty due to the unrelenting annual cycle of flood disasters, and stressed the urgent need for a united front in addressing the challenge.

“Nigerians have equally suffered injuries and lost their life savings due to unmitigated incidences of floods and secondary hazards every year,” she said.

The NEMA boss referenced the 2025 Seasonal Climate Prediction by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Annual Flood Outlook by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), and explained that the forecasts paint a concerning picture of rainfall patterns and potential flood scenarios this year.

She said NEMA has developed a Climate Related Risk Management Guide and Mitigative Actions which will serve as a national blueprint to reduce disaster losses.

According to her, the agency has activated its Early Warning System and identified key disaster risk management implications, which are already being communicated to communities at risk. Vulnerability maps covering flood-prone areas across the country have also been produced, and are now available to support state and local governments in designing targeted interventions.

The DG said, “as part of our flood Early Warning System, NEMA has identified disaster risk management implications and mitigation strategies for communication to communities at risk during the rainy season.”

Umar explained that the predicted hazards for 2025 include delayed onset and early cessation of rains in some states, a shorter-than-normal growing season, above-average rainfall in others, severe dry spells of up to 21 days in some areas, and generally warmer temperatures.

She warned that these conditions would have far-reaching consequences on socio-economic sectors such as agriculture, health, transportation, telecommunications, energy, water supply, education, and security.

In light of this, she said NEMA has outlined a range of mitigation strategies, including capacity building for local emergency responders, community simulation exercises, promotion of rainwater harvesting, and the encouragement of farmers to align planting seasons with rainfall forecasts.

Other actions include the vaccination of livestock, investment in irrigation systems, prepositioning of essential supplies, and enforcing the desilting of drainages and natural waterways.

She also stressed the importance of conducting integrity tests on critical infrastructure, developing evacuation plans for high-risk communities, strengthening grassroots information-sharing platforms, and ramping up security and surveillance in flood-prone areas.

Umar urged all relevant actors, including public and private institutions, humanitarian and non-governmental organizations, youth groups, schools, and the media, to actively support NEMA’s preparedness and mitigation efforts.

She stressed that early action, driven by accurate data and coordinated strategies, is the only sustainable path to saving lives and building national resilience.

“The devastating impacts of annual floods in Nigeria have served as a wake-up call. We must act now—together and with urgency—to save lives and safeguard livelihoods,” she added.

NEMA Raises Alarm Over 2025 Flood Threats, Rolls Out Early Warning, Response Strategies is first published on The Whistler Newspaper