Despite the massive flooding already experienced across the country, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), yesterday warned that Nigeria could experience more natural disasters due to the increasing impact of green House effect, weather change and Global warming.

The Agency also gave airline operators and Shipping Companies in Nigeria up till January 2008, to install the 406Mhz locator beacons on their fleets, to facilitate search and Rescue operations. in

The ultimatum is one year ahead of the International deadline of December 2009.

Director General , NEMA, Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Audu Bida, gave the warnings yesterday in Abuja , while briefing newsmen on activities of the organisation and its emergency response capabilities.

Bida said the Agency was doing its best within the limits of available Resources , but would not be held responsible for any delay or lack of response to emergencies involving aircraft and ships, if they do not carry along with them serviceable locator beacons that could be activated on impact and signals transmitted to NEMA.

The NEMA boss urged states and Local governments in the country to brace up for the challenges of natural disasters, pointing Out that these occurrences were not about to end soon. Emergency Management , he said, must be seen as a collective responsibility and not just the function of the National Emergency Management Agency.He expressed displeasure at the reportage of disasters in the Nigerian media, stressing that there was need for insistence on accuracy in reports of casualties and loss of Property during disasters in order to ensure that the agency\'s Data Bank was not distorted. He however pledged that the agency would soon organise Special workshops to build the capacity of media practitioners in the coverage of disasters and conflicts.Bida explained that the agency had decentralised its operations with the establishment of six zonal offices located in Maiduguri (North East), Kaduna (North West), Jos (North Central ), Enugu (South East), Port Harcourt (South South) and Lagos (South West). According to Bida, the decentralisation was to ensure quick and effective response as well as better collaboration between NEMA and the various State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA).He disclosed that NEMA would soon convene a multi-stakeholder meeting on emergency Management which would bring together organisations such as Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Federal Fire Service (FFS) as well as the various states and Local governments to map Out clear strategies on emergency response in the country.