States and other stakeholders in the building and environment sectors have been warned by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency not to ignore flood alerts.
The Director-General of the agency, Clement Nze, gave the warning on Wednesday, March 24 and also told states to play their roles well to mitigate flooding this year.
Nze who disclosed that 317 local governments in 36 states and the FCT were affected by flood last year, added that large areas of farms were destroyed in Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano among others.
Recounting how previous attempts to get the state government along in its flood forecast efforts had not yielded the desire results, Nze urged the state and local governments to among other things, begin the clearing of drainages and canals as well as encourage people living along the water-ways to relocate to safer areas before the rains start fully.