By Cajetan Mmuta, Awka
The scenes and sites of devastations currently ravaging over 600 communities across ten out of the 21 local government areas of Anambra State are better seen than imagined.
This is because as the saying goes that seeing is believing. Indeed, the cries and woes of the seeming Holocaust of nature’s conquest over man are real and out of mere imagination. It is a sordid and pitiable sight for the people and residents of the communities affected by this year’s flood disaster.
From all indications and going by the narrations of victims, such as massive loss and destruction of valuable properties and loss of lives including thousands of hectares of farmlands, crops and animals washed away by the flood, the situation appears irreconcilable, unimaginable, and inexplicable.
The passage of each day and night brings with it tears of sorrow, anguish, pains, regrets, lamentations, nostalgia, deprivation, and hopelessness of how the same nature that has always been man’s joyful embrace and friend, brought a strange and violent tsunami with festering of indelible marks.
For the past month, the peaceful and agrarian communities of Ogbaru in Awka-North, Anambra-East, Anambra-West, Onitsha-South, Onitsha-North, Ihiala, Ayamelum, Idemili South and Ekwusigo local government areas have been ghost towns with visible emptiness and deaths hanging in the air.
The people have continued to remain slaves in other lands due to the echoes of the deluge and the saddening effects of the flood.
Findings revealed that the impact of the ravaging flood swept through several kilometres in length and breadth, leaving all the residents of the communities in total despair and distraught. A visit to some of the communities in Ogbaru near the commercial town of Onitsha (the core business and investment) hub of the five states in the Southeast geo-political zone, other neighbouring states from the South-South, northern and Western parts of Nigeria and indeed West African countries, leaves one with utter worry and psychological trauma due to the height of losses the people have incurred.
Pieces of evidence of billions of naira worth of eye-popping mansions, schools, worship centres, hospitals, business centres, markets; government and private establishments as well as other buildings presently in ruins are unquantifiable as the flood submerged all in utmost wreckage with shocks and woeful state.
Worse still, the wild wind of the flood left in its wake a horrendous and sickening aura of sorrow with over 25 official deaths so far.
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It was reported that while the communities and councils had yet to come to terms with the veil of trauma that enveloped them, more than 200 of their relatives were believed to be missing or dead as their whereabouts remain uncertain.
On Monday, it was reported that the victims were traced by a search party to the last floor of a two-storey building in Umuzu community in Ogbaru town.
This occurred after the down and first floors of the complex had been submerged by the flood.
Boats were hired by the search party through the efforts of community leaders two days ago to look for the families. Chairman Flood Committee in Umuzu Prince Chris Okwuosa who spoke to newsmen said the major challenge facing the victims is food.
He said, “They have no food to eat and you know that whatever they have as food must have been exhausted and with the number of children with them it has become a problem. We have made contacts with people who can send food items to them because most of them are starving and those that are sick also need medical attention.”
Okwuosa explained that the few boats that were hired will not be enough to evacuate them, adding that the community is making efforts for more boats.
According to him, “We got some boats but it will not be enough so we are making efforts to get more boats to evacuate them and take them to the camp at Umudala in Ihiala local government area which is the closest to us here.”
He expressed optimism that the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Afam Obidike, would make bold his promise of assisting the victims.
“The state government through the Commissioner for Health has promised to come to Umuzu and we have confidence in the state government that it would make bold its promise before it becomes too late and all that we need now is food items,” he said.
*Over 9, 000 distraught victims face bleak situations
Our Correspondent, who visited some areas with the worst devastation recently, noted that an estimated 9,000 or more victims of flood disasters are in dire need of urgent attention before their plight gets out of hand.
Some of the inmates of the 24 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps set up by the state government are helplessly locked at the crossroads following the alarming and unbearable state of hunger due to lack of enough food to meet the needs of the milling crowd, dearth of drugs, poor sanitary conditions, lack of drinking water and bedding materials and drugs.
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*Crowded IDPs camps, victims sleep on bridges, roads, and open fields
For instance, at the popular Rev Fr Joseph Memorial High School, Umueri, Umuoba Anam, and Umueze Anam camps, all in Anambra-East and those of Anambra-West, Ogbaru local government areas of the state, it was gathered that the absence of officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) at the various camps have further poses a danger to the victims’ fate.
It is, however, instructive to note that Governor Charles Soludo, in the company of the NEMA and SEMA officials, had visited some of the camps, but the government appears helpless as the victims lament abandonment since that executive visit.
Sadly, the victims are currently sleeping in the open on top of bridges, middle of the roads, and in unprotected shanties even as they inhale the foul air from the already polluted water (flood) surrounding them.
At the last count, there are reports of looming epidemics, malnutrition, and possible deaths due to extreme exposure to cold, hunger, and strange reptiles as well as other animals brought to those areas by the evil flood. In addition, reports of ooze of foul odour from the flooded areas due to strange corpses of dead bodies of victims, rotten animals, and other dangerous debris and dirt floating on the water have further compounded the pitiable plight of the trapped flood victims.
Precarious as their fate remains, they alleged diversion of relief materials meant for them, to other areas of interest by those deployed to distribute emergency welfare packages for their temporary upkeep at the camps.
In Anambra-East and West LGAs, the majority of the victims who converged on the Umueze Anam Bridge and Otuocha Daily Market bridge/road have been sleeping in the open for weeks due to the absence of shelter.
The residents had built cubicles and make-shift beds where nursing mothers and old people pass the night on daily basis with the potential danger of contracting pneumonia, skin diseases, and sickness.
Also, at Otuocha Daily market, the traders and market women sacked by the flood now do their businesses along the Otuocha-Awkuzu road while the usually busy Motor Park in the area now remains deserted and a ghost area with debris and still water taking huge shape.
Narrating her plight, a market woman, Mrs Nkiruka Kwalo, in an interview with ThisNigeria at the bank of the Omanbala River said, “We are not happy at all because those relief materials meant for us are being diverted to other places and our people are dying of hunger. And what we also need is money to go back to the farm when the flood stops.”
She laments further, “Most of us sleep on the top of this bridge and too many mosquitoes, and our children are exposed to all types of illness and nobody is coming to our aid.”
Also, at the Unity Hall Umuoba Anam, community leaders were seen battling to control hordes of little children who struggled for sachets of noodles along with nursing mothers even as they complained bitterly about hunger and shelter.
President-General of Umuoba Anam, Mr Victior Omenwa, told journalists that out of 1,200 displaced persons in the camp at the primary school, only 37 matrasses were provided for them by the state government while the rest slept in the open and on the floor.
According to him, “We are managing the much we could do but the number is too much and we only have 37 matrasses for 1,200 persons, so, the rest sleep on the floor.”
He said, “The governor visited us about a week ago and they promised to bring more as well as food and we are still waiting for them. We need food for the children and we thank those who have been coming to help us.”
A 66-year-old indigene of the Nkpunando community in Anambra-East simply identified as Mr Ubah, (a mason), lamented that the flood washed off several hectares of his farmland and destroyed his residential building which forces him and other members of his family to relocate to the camp at Rev Father Joe Memorial High School in the area. He appealed to the federal and state government to come to their aid especially in the provision of food and cash to take care of themselves.
Also, Mr Amaechi Ezekwesili, from the Aguleri community (a farmer) who said that he has two wives and six children, disclosed that the flood “washed off his cassava, yam and tomato farmlands estimated at 30 hectares of land several thousands of naira.”
He called the state government to provide the victims with drugs and food items as well as cash to enable them to buy seedlings when the flood recedes.
Also, countless children are presently out of school even as several schools have been shut down by the state government as a result of the flood. On its part, the state government appears helpless as a result of the massive effects of the flood as available records show that the state has the worst devastation this year after the 2012 flood episode.
*Epidemic looms, extreme starvation, deprivations, deaths, others
Currently, there are concerns by stakeholders, residents, and distraught families as well as thousands of the victims of the flood disaster over the looming outbreak of the epidemic.
Although, Governor Chukwuma Soludo is all out to mitigate the plight of the victims scattered across the state. Coincidentally, two new babies were recently delivered in the IDP Camps a few days ago.
The state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Felix Odumegwu, said, “We are aware that there could be an outbreak of epidemic in those holding camps which we call IDP camps given the number of displaced people in the camps; so we are observing the highest level of hygiene at the camps.”
According to him, “We have sent people to carry out grass cutting at places that are overgrown by weeds and the situation as it is today is one that we are not leaving anything to chance and we have the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) which has a steering committee headed by the Executive Secretary Mr. Paul Odenigbo who is well experienced.”
Odumegwu noted, “All the relevant ministries that have a stake in this activity are well represented and at Bishop Crowder Camp we discovered that there was a leakage at the sewage system and it has been rectified while the Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities and his team have revived all the boreholes and has ensured steady power supply in those camps.
“The state Commissioner for Health has been carrying out routine visits with his medical personnel to those holding camps and two days ago and yesterday we carried out a caesarean operation on a pregnant woman and she delivered her baby and also another woman delivered a baby and she was rushed to the hospital and with the help of Dr Obiora the women and the babies are in good condition.”
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At Ogbaru local government area, the 16 President Generals of the affected communities have expressed serious concerns over the high state of hunger and starvation threatening the area which may stir sudden deaths among the aged men and women as well as little children in the area.
President-General of Akili Ogidi community, Michael Chukwusa, said, “Our people do not have access to food and water and the worse hit are the old men and women in our towns as well as children and since the flood has washed away farmlands and even the markets where we can buy the food we have resigned to fate.
“We are appealing to everyone, not just government alone to come to our assistance before we begin to record deaths of old people and children we know that the state government is doing its best but we still cry for more due to the number of displaced people in Ogbaru local government area.”
Recall that, according to data released by the Federal Government on Monday, 603 persons have died, two million displaced, and hundreds of hectares of farmlands destroyed in this year’s flood across the country, making it the worst ever.
Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, Governor Chukwuma Soludo said eight local governments of the state had been submerged, adding that bridges, roads, and houses had been washed off.
He called on the Presidency and the National Assembly to be proactive in seeking immediate and long-term solutions to the issue of flooding.
Soludo said, “Beyond the immediate coping strategy and our long-term agenda as a government in dealing with the environment, there is a national conversation that needs to happen. We can no longer deal with perennial flooding as an emergency.
“We knew it would happen. We know the next one will come. A year or two from now, another massive one will come and the country must begin to prepare and ask: what if it happens again? What would be our response?
“That conversation must become a national conversation in the run-up to next year’s election. I think the National Assembly and the presidency must give a more forceful response, especially in the next two to three weeks when the flooding recedes.”
The Federal Government said it would deploy a nationally coordinated approach involving all arms and levels of government in addressing the ravaging flood in the country.
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed on Wednesday in Abuja at the inaugural edition of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s scorecard 2015-2023 series, that the Federal Government is worried and concerned over the devastating floods that are impacting many parts of the country.
“It is a very grave matter, very tragic in its human and economic costs and it is going to require an all of the government’s approach from local to state and the Federal Government to deal with it.
“It is going to require an all-nation approach, perhaps something similar to the way we responded to the COVID-19 pandemic where everybody played a role because really, everybody is impacted one way or the other,” he said.
On the part of his ministry, Fashola said he had deployed all controllers of works in the 36 states to go out, measure, assess, and evaluate the cost of replacement, rehabilitation, and where necessary, restoration.
He added that the Federal Government was already in touch with the National Assembly so that after quantifying the costs in terms of resources, fund allocation would not be a challenge.
“We are mindful of the imminence of the end of the year and the heavy human-on-goods logistics that go with festivity. We want to be in a position to make that as less painful as possible. He stated, “At the moment, there are also places where we can’t do a lot because this is nature, so we have to wait for the floods to recede a little bit,” he said.
Fashola commiserated with the victims of the flooding and reassured them of the government’s commitment to deploy a coordinated response.
