OCTOBER 15 , 2022 | EASTERN PILOT Report By: Michael Ovat, Awka | A family of six persons have drowned to death by flood in Anambra East L...
OCTOBER 15 , 2022 | EASTERN PILOT
Report By: Michael Ovat, Awka |
A family of six persons have drowned to death by flood in Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra State. Tribune Online gathered that the incident happened in Nzam community, and that the family was drowned in their house after it was submerged by flood. In a trending video, youths of the community were seen bringing out corpses from their house and depositing them in an upland area. From the circulating video, the bodies consisted of a woman, her four children and her sister.
A narrator in the video said the family was already prepared to leave for a safe place, before they were swept away by the flood. Anambra and Kogi State have been described as the worse hit states in the recent flood. About 81 people had lost their lives in two boat incidences in another part of Anambra; Ogbaru, just last week, while a man who had successfully evacuated his family from the flood and opted to stay back to take care of the vicinity was recently drowned in his sleep in the same Ogbaru.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in a press conference had said that it has commenced aerial surveillance, using helicopters, to rescue trapped residents of flooded area. The Anambra State Government says the ongoing flooding in parts of the state has assumed a “monumental dimension.” The Deputy Governor of the state, Onyekachukwu Ibezim, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Sunday.
Mr Ibezim said the deaths, destruction of property and livelihood were no longer tolerable and that time had come for the federal government to engage Cameroonian authorities in diplomatic discussions for the systematic release of water from their dams. He said the dredging of the River Niger had become imperative as a strategy to reduce the effect of flood sustainably and reduce the volume of overflow.
“This is monumental. It is the worst we have seen in recent times. Lives have been lost, properties have been destroyed and economic activities, including farmlands, have been washed away by this flood. “Time has come for the federal government to discuss with the Cameroonian authorities on how to manage the release of water from their dams. This should not be allowed anymore,” he said. Mr Ibezim said the volume of the flood had overstretched the rescue and intervention plan of the state as each day came with new challenges.
He said the state government was doing its best with help from the private sector, noting that it was time the federal government waded in to help contain the situation. According to him, some of the IDP camps have been flooded, while others have been submerged. “Intervention needs are increasing; we are supplying live jackets to reduce the risk for those using boats and canoes to migrate; we are providing water to those in camps because there is no potable water in all the affected local government areas.
“Food demand has increased because the farms have been cut off while more people are entering the camps. They need medicals, beddings and other items,” he said. Mr Ibezim urged friends and relations of affected people to graciously extend invitations to them and welcome them if they sought accommodation in their homes to reduce the pressure in the holding camps across the state.
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