By Chioma Umeh
LAGOS – At least 170 persons have received
training in search and rescue operations, as part of the contingency plans for
the predicted 2016 flooding.
The capacity building workshop on Basic Skills in
Search and Rescue was conducted by the Anambra State Emergency Management
Agency (SEMA) in conjunction with trainers from the Southeast Zonal National
Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
According to SEMA Director, Chukwudi Onyejekwe,
who coordinated the workshop on behalf of the Executive Secretary of SEMA, the
directive to build community resilience for disaster risk reduction was from
the State Governor, Willie Obiano.
He said that it was to ensure that volunteer
workers from the 21 local government areas of the state get needed training to
ensure there would be enough hands to tackle any unforeseen situation.
The volunteer workers in Otuocha, Anambra East
Local Government Area, are also expected to gain knowledge needed to assist the
flood prone rural dwellers ahead of the speculated flooding in order that no
life will be lost.
In a simulated training at Otuocha, an emergency
situation-like mood was activated, with sound of the Ambulance rattling the
atmosphere while Emergency Management officials rallied around to assist the
supposed victims.
This is part of the training programme organised
by SEMA and NEMA.
From the outdoor-dramatised emergency response
display to the indoor actual training workshop, the crux of the matter was to
train the 170 volunteer workers from the 21 local government areas of the state
on community resilience and disaster risk reduction with the use of modern
equipment.
The Director of SEMA, Mr Chukwudi Onyejekwe,
coordinating on behalf of the SEMA Executive Secretary, said that the training
was a paradigm shift in disaster management which had moved from emergency
response to disaster risk reduction.
The NEMA trainer, Ifeyinwa Onyia, who also
represented the Southeast Zonal Coordinator urged the participants to follow
instructions and learn every skill taught them.
The technical session was handled by other NEMA
trainers who explain the function of each modern equipment used for search and
rescue operation.
The technicalities in the use of the
state-of-the-art ambulance were also explained to the participants, as a mobile
clinic that sustains a victim before being taken to the hospital.
For one of the participants, Eucharia Attah, the
training was a good development, as the use of advanced equipment in disaster
risk reduction produce best results in rescue operations.
The idea of bringing rescue operation training to
the rural communities is one that will not only help in the event of flooding
but one that will also assist in reducing disaster rate in different emergency
situation.
After the Nigerian Meteorological Agency predicted
that some states in Nigeria would be devastated by flood, the identified
states, including Anambra, are taking precautions to guard against the
disaster. Flood has already sacked some persons from their homes in Kaduna and
some other states in the northern part of Nigeria.
