NiMet to procure N1bn equipment for marine forecast

Mansur Matazu, director-general of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), says the federal government is working on procuring equipment worth N1 billion that will provide forecasts for the country’s marine sector.

Matazu, who spoke to journalists in Abuja on Monday, said the agency’s recent policy provides that it expands services to non-aviation sectors. 

He said the agency is extending forecast services to the marine sector because Nigeria has more than 800km of coastline, with a lot of busy seas and shipping activities.

“We need to do a lot of installations, especially on high sensitive instruments, to monitor the weather conditions around the coasts. This is a very capital intensive programme that involves the purchase and installation of tidal gauge and other marine equipment,” he said.

“This is just the first phase and we are going to expand by next year. Also, I must state here that this is based on the huge support we are getting from the federal ministry of aviation.”

Also speaking on the weather in northern Nigeria, Matazu said the region is more vulnerable to heavy rainfall, with the situation worsened as a result of climate change.

He said the period between July and September would witness a lot of flooding, because the signals the agency is getting shows higher intensity of rainfall. 

“This could be within cities, known as flash floods and all around floodplain areas known as riverine floods. So what we are seeing now is the manifestation of our initial forecast which climate change is helping to induce and increase the intensity,” he said.

“Just a few days ago in Katsina state, over our station, we got a single day event of over 100mm of rain. That has never happened for the last 100 years; the average has never been more than 30mm. This evidently shows that this extreme event is driven by climate change.

“That 100mm will give rise to high overland flash floods with a lot of erosion and segment generation that will cause siltation in our rivers and water resources reservoirs, which affects their supply and performance.”