No less than twelve communities mostly in Etsako Central local government area, Edo North Senatorial district have been submerged by flood as a result of torrential rain in the last few days that has resulted in the River Niger overflowing its banks.
Many of the residents have to flee because the water level in most of the communities has gone above the window level of their houses while those who managed to move around go in canoes residents say this is the worst flood they have had since 2012 when they thought they had seen the worst. Churches, mosques, markets, and schools have all been taken over by flood water.
Some of the communities mostly hit are Udaba-Ekphei, Anegbette, Ukpeko Orle, Ofukpo, Agbabu, Osomegbe, Udochi, Yelwa, Ake Island and Ifeku Islay.
Agricultural produce like rice, cassava, vegetables, potatoes, ground nuts and others have been completely submerged by the devastating floods. The people are calling on all governments at the Federal, state and local to come to their aid before they start losing their lives due to the devastating effects of the flood.
An indigene of the Udaba, Mr Isaac Omoaka said “My village is completely submerged. Since I was born, I have never seen such a thing. This year’s flood is ten times that of 2012.
“We have a prominent son who built schools, a hospital complete with a mortuary, laboratory, x-ray and several amenities all of them now are under the water.”
When contacted on Sunday, the Edo State Commissioner for Special Duties, Osasere Evboumwan said “We were in Etsako Central last Friday; myself, NEMA, SEMA, the Head of Local Government Administration, WHO and others. We are sending our report now to see how we can provide relief for them.
Their farms have been taken away by water, every year this flood comes and NEMA said the only solution to this is to dredge River Niger otherwise it will continue to occur. For the immediate solution, we are going to be supplying food for them, the IDP centre in Ogomeri is dry and there are facilities there but the people are reluctant to come there. We are preparing the IDP for them, there are mattresses there, there is a generator, the fridge is there, the kitchen is there then we will beef up the medical centre.”
VANGUARD
