The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has inaugurated operational vehicles and other specialised equipment for effective search and rescue operations during disasters across the country.
The Director-General of NEMA, Mr Mustapha Ahmed, in Abuja said that the equipment would be deployed across the zonal, territorial and operational offices of the agency.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the equipment include three mobile intensive care unit ambulances and three incident response vehicle (IRVs), two motorised boats, two inflatable boats, nine flood lights, 15 probe cameras and three life locators.
Others are: 15 breaching systems, nine chain saws, six concrete cutters, nine full body harness, nine hose pump unit, nine hydraulic cutter, nine hydraulic hose, nine hydraulic rescue ram and nine hydraulic spreader.
It also include: nine manual cutter and spreader, three concrete cutting saw and two additional water purifier trucks donated by the Government of Japan.
Ahmed, while commissioning them said that they would close existing gaps and meet the current challenges faced by actors responding to emergencies in the field.
He said the equipment would further ensure efficient, fast location, recovery and treatment of victims and upscale community resilience in the country.
According to him, current trend in hazard identification, risk mapping and actual disasters requires proactive measures to meet up with international best practices.
“In the last eight months, floods in Nigeria; mostly flash floods, have inundated 33 out of 36 states and FCT.
“It has affected 508,000 persons, leading to about 372 deaths, 277 injured persons, destruction of about 37,633 houses and loss of huge numbers of livestock.
“Several farmland have been submerged, mostly in Adamawa, Jigawa, Taraba, Kano, Bauchi, Niger, Anambra and Ebonyi.
“These have been accompanied by other derivative disasters. The agency has begun to venture into realms of proactive and predictive disaster risk management in line with best practices,” he said.
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