By ZAKAA LAZARUS
The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) has expressed readiness to strengthen its partnership with environmental journalists to improve public awareness on healthy environment, water resources management, flood forecasting, early warning systems and other hydrological issues.
This was contained in a statement signed by Samuel Adeyinka, Secretary, Environmental Media Correspondents Association of Nigeria (EMCAN).
The Director-General of NIHSA, Arc. Umar Muhammed, stated this when the Executive Council of EMCAN, led by its Chairman, Joycelyn Ellekeche Adah, paid a courtesy visit to the agency in Abuja.
Muhammed stressed the importance of stronger collaboration between the agency and the media in disseminating critical information to the public, particularly to vulnerable communities.
“The media remains an important partner in helping the agency reach vulnerable communities with timely and accurate information, particularly on early warnings and water-related risks,” he said.
According to him, effective management of water resources is critical to preventing scarcity, contamination and outbreak of water-related diseases.
“If you do not have a good environment and manage water resources, one day you wake up and you’d be shocked with what you see. Either you totally run out of water or you have no clean water,” he said.
He warned against poor environmental management and contamination of water sources, noting that human activities contribute significantly to pollution of streams and other water bodies.
“We will need an organisation like yours to interface with the public and disseminate quality information for public use,” he added.
The association used the visit to inform NIHSA management of its plans to cover the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) scheduled to hold in Türkiye.
Adah appealed to NIHSA to support the association’s participation, particularly through sponsorship for two to three members.
Responding, the NIHSA DG said the agency is making preparations to participate in COP31 and is exploring collaboration with international development partners.
“If we are able to secure quite a number of slots, why not? Definitely, it’s something that we could consider,” he said, noting he could not give a definite commitment at the moment.
The Special Assistant on Media to the DG, Yakub Aliyu, stressed the need for closer collaboration in publicity and capacity building, saying NIHSA required greater visibility to enable Nigerians to understand its mandate.
Similarly, Technical Adviser to the DG, Stephen Jabo, called for stronger collaboration to improve public awareness of NIHSA activities, particularly the Annual Flood Outlook.
Earlier, EMCAN Chairman Adah said the association considers NIHSA’s work extremely important but believes more can be done to bring its activities to the front burner.
“As environmental journalists, we have been following and reporting the activities of NIHSA, but we want to do more,” she said, proposing a structured partnership for capacity building and accurate reporting.
Both organisations expressed optimism that the visit would mark the beginning of a stronger relationship focused on public enlightenment, professional development and early warning dissemination.
