Govt launches ‘Wetin App’ to curb flood challenges
In a bid to tackle the flood situation in the country, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a smartphone app recently in partnership with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
The ‘Wetin App’ is designed specifically to address the problems farmers and residents of the River Niger and Benue are constantly facing in the region.
Sheik Ahmed, the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, said the development of the app came on the back of devastating floods of 2012, which claimed lives and led to the destruction of farms and houses in the surrounding area.
Ahmed, who was represented at the launch of the app in Abuja by the director of Agricultural Businesses, Processing and Marketing, said that Nigeria had risen above the painful loss and turned the difficult situation into an opportunity to provide technology-driven solutions to the problems faced by the agricultural sector.
Also, Timothy Olalekan Williams, regional director, IWMI, noted that the data used in developing the app was obtained from the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, and satellites in space.
In order not to have a recurrence of the flood situation that occurred in 2012, Muhammad Sani Sidi, director general, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has warned on August 6, 2016, when he called on stakeholders to take necessary actions following intense rainfall and rise in water level of the community: “If the heavy rainfall continues in intensity and duration within these regions of the River Niger, it is imminent that flood situation similar to that of the year 2012 may occur.”
It is believed that the Wetin App would at least serve as a precautionary measure to combat such disaster in the near future.