The Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources has held a one day workshop in collaboration with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMET, to review the year 2021 Seasonal Climate Prediction, SCP.
The Workshops is part of effort to adequately prepare residents of Lagos for adverse weather conditions and impacts on various sectors of the economy such as: Construction, Water Resources Management, Transportation, Agriculture, Commerce, Industry and Trade.
Declaring the workshop open, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Drainage Services, Mr. Joe Igbokwe said the appraisal of last year’s prediction is necessary for the purpose of data processing and also to enable the State to self assess and strategize, especially in view of the challenges posed by Global Climate Change.
According to the Special Adviser who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Office of Drainage Services and Water Resources, Mr Olalekan Sodeinde, the action is especially necessary due to its impact which is mostly felt at the communal level, comprising of already vulnerable and food insecure individuals and those living around flood plain within the State.
He said “When we now have the prediction for 2022, we can now do a form of data comparison with the data of 2021 to better prepare for the year 2022 intervention that we are doing, government is playing its part, we are currently dredging and working on the big channels now in preparation for the coming rains and in another four weeks, we will expand these activities, so, let’s all do the same in our different neighbourhoods, when we do this, it is a conveyance system; Tertiary to Secondary and then Primary, of we all keep them clean, then the water will have somewhere to go”
The Special Adviser said Lagos is looking forward to improved synergy to boost its knowledge base as well as technology for the smooth take off of its Automatic Weather Station which is under construction.
In a message, NiMET Director-General, Prof Mansur Matazu commended Lagos State for the initiative and expressed hope that other States in the Country would take note of the event and take necessary steps to pay more attention to weather and prevailing climate in their communities.
Represented by the Director, Weather Forecasting Service, Mr Mailady Yusuf, the NiMET DG said this year’s Seasonal Climate Prediction, would soon be released by the Agency.
“That’s why we are calling on all State Governments to please partner with us to downscale these information to the lowest level of the society, when the farmer get that information, and we issue them in pamphlets, they can prepare, if the prediction come true, and if not, they are still prepared”
“We also predict temperatures, when the environment becomes hot, it affects our health, when we predict temperatures, health experts will them issue advisories on what to to and what not to do, majorly, we issue advisories to experts who know how to use our information to advice the citizens” he said.
Last year, NiMET had predicted that Lagos will experience an average of about 238 – 261 days of rainfall with maximum annual rainfall amount of 1,747mm which might result in flooding and the State had implemented measures to curb the impact.
The one day workshop was attended by farmers’ representatives, academics and other key stakeholders.
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