Formal Basis for Counter Disaster Actions in Selected States in the Niger Delta, Nigeria.

The study looked into the laws and policies which provide a formal basis for counter disaster action in the study states.The population of the area as projected to 2019 using NPC growth rate of 2.9% and 3.4% arrived at 226,393 while the sample size as calculated with Taro Yamane formula is 399.The 399 copies of structured questionnaires were administered purposively with the aid of Participatory Rapid Assessment PRA to engage communities' participation.The data collected were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics.Results showed that the respondents' perception and knowledge on the provision of disaster action laws and policies with the overall grand mean of 4.03, 4.18 and 3.88 which is greater than the criterion mean (3.00).The result shows that there is no significant difference in the opinions of the respondents on this question.The study recommended that the construction of houses using durable materials aimed to protect flood victims and away from the flood prone areas should be considered.Also, Community based coping strategies should be incorporated for strengthening the mitigation measures to improve resilience of the people residents in the study communities.The study recommends further that communities may not have the capacity to improve itself and requires government institutional base capacities, NGOs, International Institutions, and major stakeholders to collaborate and assist in providing needed humanitarian supports, providing functional communication system to strengthen and improve capacities, reconstruction of affected infrastructures to encourage functional stability of social life and other forms of collaborative existence capable of enhancing longevity of life especially on the elderly people.