Experts engage Kaduna communities on hazards

Ungwan Bulus community in Chikun, threatened by erosion

The media, environmentalists and stakeholders led by officials of Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency, during the week, successfully concluded a-weeklong monitoring exercise of the ongoing hazard identification and profiling, being conducted by field officers recently trained and posted to all the 23 local government areas of Kaduna state.

The exercise, which is the brainchild of the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), was put together to strengthen systems on coordination and response in the event of emergencies in the state, particularly at the grassroots level.

While in Chikun, Kajuru Local Government Area, Senior Assessment Officer of the Agency, Mubarak Zakari explained that the monitoring exercise was going on simultaneously in all the 23 Local Government Areas of the state, adding that the monitoring by all the stakeholders was to ensure that accurate data were collected to facilitate planning and budgeting towards tackling possible disasters in the state.

"The monitoring is also to address the challenges being faced by field officers to ensure accurate data collection. The entire exercise is community-driven and meant to get information from the people directly affected by disasters to enable the agency to plan better", Zakari said, expressing satisfaction over the presence of all key stakeholders, including people with special needs as well as women.

He revealed that the project was being carried out in collaboration with Nigeria Early Recovery Initiative (NERI) with full funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

On her part, Gloria Kasang Bulus, a leading Environmentalist and a consultant to the project, who monitored Jema'a, Kaura and Zangon Kataf and other neighboring Local Government Areas, expressed delight over the success of the exercise and commended field officers for their commitment and dedication to their primary assignment.

In the same vein, one of the Field Officers, Mr Yusuf Ishaku Goje, who facilitated the exercise in Igabi Local Government Area, commended SEMA for a laudable initiative of ensuring a bottom-top contingency plan against emergencies, revealing that "the most disturbing hazards in the area are banditry and kidnapping".

Also, Mr Dangwa Abbas Danjuma, the Field Officer deployed to Zangon Kataf Local Government Area, assured that the data being generated across the state would be useful to both state and non state actors in their work with communities across the state, pointing out that the hazards identified by community members threaten development, food security, peace building and sustainable growth.

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