Mr Umar Magashi, deputy director at NHSA, made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Abuja.
Magashi said that to learn the technique, the agency would be participating in a regional workshop on hydrological modelling for flood foresting from Dec. 21 to Dec. 27 in Niamey.
``The workshop aims to strengthen the capacity of the participants on flood risk management using the hydrological modelling- SWAT.
``It is expected at the end of this workshop that participants take ownership of the SWAT model and make it a reference tool for flood and water resources monitoring in West Africa,’’ he said.
Magashi said that the agency had been using hydrological modelling to forecast floods while the Nigerian Metrological Agency (NIMET) used atmospheric modelling to do same.
``We use these techniques to forecast flooding just like what we did early this year; we predicted the flood and it happened the way we predicted it,’’ he said.
He said there were many tools that could be used to predict flooding and that the agency would need more tools to carry out water resources assessment.
He expressed optimism that Nigeria’s participation in the workshop would equip the agency to give useful information on floods risk management.
'`We have seen the devastation caused by flooding as a result of which almost three quarters of the country was submerged.
``We really have to be careful; we need to go back to the drawing board and see how we can equip ourselves to prevent future re-occurrence,’’ he said.
Magashi, however, called for relocation of people living in flood prone areas as the best practice to prevent flooding, adding that good drainages should be provided.
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