The Nigerian Meteorological Agency ( NiMet) has called on state governments to put machineries in place to manage flooding and other arising issues.
The Director General, NiMet, Prof. Charles Anosike made the call on Wednesday when the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Olajide Idris, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.
The meeting allowed the Heads of the two agencies to discuss a wide range of issues including identifying areas for collaboration such as early warning systems for climate-sensitive diseases and public health threats and how Climate data can be integrated into disease prediction models.
The impact of weather and climate on disease outbreaks, e.g. climate change, vector-borne and water-borne diseases.
Framework for regular data exchange and analysis to inform public health decisions and potential proposal for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for data sharing and joint research.
He said that it’s important that NiMet forges a stronger partnership with NCDC. “Climate change poses threats to the health and well-being of all. It affects our food, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. This has caused the spread of certain pests and diseases across the world, not only in Nigeria. Climate change multiplies the threats. It compounds everything”.
He added that “Every one of us is vulnerable to climate change. NiMet will look into all the areas identified including sharing of data and developing a draft MOU. Every year NiMet presents its seasonal climate prediction (SCP) which is an early warning tool. What is happening nationwide has been predicted.
“We issue three and seven days, one-month, three months, and daily forecasts. The impact of climate change is real all over the world. We are alerting the various states. Each state should set up its processes to manage the flooding and other arising issues,” he said.
Anosike said the successes recorded by the NCDC during the period of COVID pandemic leveraging technology has demonstrated that technology can help in solving societal problems in Nigeria.
The NCDC Director General noted that with climate change impacting health services delivery nationally and globally, it was important to partner with NiMet which already has data on the phenomenon.
“It’s a good thing that NiMet has been working with the NCDC over the years. We only need to make the collaboration stronger”, Dr. Idris said.
Responding, Professor Anosike said that this is a good time for stronger collaboration between NiMet and NCDC.
