Nigeria’s Centre for Space Science & Technology Education (CSSTE) has announced its optimism in its capability to mitigate the negative socio-economic impacts of flooding in the country.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of Online Regional Training on Flood Monitoring and Forecasting Modelling, the Executive Director, Dr Ganiyu Adbaje, revealed that Nigeria had improved its possession of requisite equipment to help better flood forecasts. This development would allow the country to make informed decisions to reduce the disaster associated with floods. He tasked experts with improving their forecasts by using satellite technology, saying it was necessary to monitor floods and identify hotspot areas to make quick damage assessments.

The executive explained that the training, conducted across West Africa, was held to equip participants with skills and requisite tools to identify flood-hotspot areas, assess the damage, and identify flood monitoring & forecast models. He insisted that the training was to show participants how to use additional satellite data to improve their predictive analyses and support for other models.

Citing that the technology has been in use for some time around the world, and pegging on the training’s success, he urged African governments to embrace technology for creative solutions and consider stronger laws in waste management efforts, whose lack of is a major cause of flooding in Africa.

The three-day training was backed by the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU) under its GMES & Africa program.