Nigeria Acquires Space Technology for Disaster Management

Nigeria has acquired and deployed Space Technology as part of efforts towards facilitating Disaster Management in the country.
According to Mohammed Audu-Bida (Rtd), the director general of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), current statistics showed that over 220, 000 people were killed through disaster-related incidents while properties worth billions of Dollars were destroyed as result of disasters in different parts of the world.
He added that the agency has attained a Full Operational Capacity (FOC) of its Mission Control Centre (MCC) from the COSPAS-SARSAT Secretariat.
The COSPAS-SARSAT is satellite-based equipment which provides distress alert and location information for Search and Rescue services, for Maritime, Aviation and Land Users in distress. The equipment employs spacecraft and regional facilities to detect and locate the signals of distress beacon.
Audu-Bida further explained that following the achievement of full operational capacity, Nigeria is able to operate independently without any supervision from other Mission Control Centres world wide.
“The country now has the capacity to cover the entire West African sub-region in aviation and maritime Search and Rescue operation by receiving and sending all distress alerts within the sub region. “Presently, the equipment is serving only Nigeria, which means the equipment is grossly under-utilized. However, Nema is currently working out modalities with the Ecowas secretariat to bring on board other states within the sub region to hook on to the Nema MCC for search and rescue operation,” he said.
He said as part of effort at addressing the problems of disaster management in Nigeria, series of national workshops on UN-SPIDER and the role of the international charter in disaster management organized by NEMA, NASRDA and the UN-SPIDER office in Vienna.
The workshop examined the facilities and strategies required to set up functional Regional Support Office (RSO) in NASRDA, Abuja with the National Emergency Management Agency as the National Focal Point, with a view to serving as a gateway to space-based information for disaster management support, through the creation of space-based information for database system and a Knowledge Portal Content Management System (KPCMS) for the West African sub-region.
It also examined how the UN-SPIDER would perform its roles as a bridge to connect disaster management communities and space information providers as well as space communities of practice and a platform for fostering alliances.
Finally, the workshop examined how to facilitate capacity building and institutional strengthening to include offering of support to national focal points or national activities in the sub-region. Participants were drawn from Africa, Europe and many international organizations involved in space-based technology for disaster management.
 Meanwhile, AVM Audu-Bida described the year 2008 was one of the most devastating on record and thus underlining the need for a continued global action against disasters.
According to him, ‘the impact of these disaster events is usually more pronounced on developing countries due largely to their low level of technological know-how, poor infrastructure, huge population and high poverty level among other problems. What is therefore needed is global collaborative efforts and support to mitigate and manage the disasters’.
In his address titled ‘Space system-based Disaster Management Support’ the DG Nema observed that Nigeria is also vulnerable to disasters of various types including flooding, coastal and gully erosion, oil spills and pollution, aviation related disasters, fire as well as the specific danger of gas emission and flooding from Lake Nyos, a volcanic lake in neighbouring Cameroon, capable of threatening millions of lives and properties downstream.
He said in efforts to achieve greater disaster management, Nema has been organizing workshops, seminars, initiated programmes and collaborating with relevant international organizations and local stakeholders.