Reps seek establishment of earthquake, tsunami monitoring centres

 

The House of Representatives on Wednesday asked the Federal Government to take urgent steps to establish earthquake/tsunami monitoring stations in the country.

It noted that Nigeria had no facilities for early warnings on earthquake/tsunami, which could result from increasing deep sea drilling and climate change.

A lawmaker from Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Akpan Umoh, who sponsored a motion on the matter, warned that Nigeria’s economy, which is dependent on petroleum activities, could crumble if it was hit by earthquake or tsunami.

Part of Umoh’s motion read, “The House is concerned that because Nigeria’s economy depends mainly on petroleum activities, any undetected Tsunami or earthquake with its attendant destruction on oil installations will crumble the economy, as cities like Calabar, Eket, Ikot Abasi, Warri, Lagos and others along the nation’s coastline will be the worst hit.

“A typical example is the case of the recent disaster in Japan.

“Recent scientific findings have proven that ‘fracking’, which is a procedure by which oil companies recover more oil from reserves by pumping millions of litres of water underground to release trapped oil and gas, has the capacity to increase tremors and the dangers of earthquake.

“Seismic monitoring devices for early warning signals have already been installed in the Republic of Cameroon, drawing from their experience on what happened at Lake Nyos in 1984 and 1986, including parts of Nigeria, Katsina-Ala in particular, which was affected adversely.”

The House mandated its Joint Committee on Environment/Emergency and Disaster Preparedness to “liaise with the Ministry of Environment and other relevant agencies of government to facilitate the establishment of such stations in the country and report to the House within 4 weeks.”