BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME
SHE simply gave her name as Madam Jane. She was seen struggling to harvest her cassava prematurely in the pool of water that almost got to her knee level in one of the communities in Joinkrama, JK, Ahoada West local government area of Rivers state.
SHE simply gave her name as Madam Jane. She was seen struggling to harvest her cassava prematurely in the pool of water that almost got to her knee level in one of the communities in Joinkrama, JK, Ahoada West local government area of Rivers state.
When Saturday Vanguard sought to know why she did not wait for the flood to dry up before harvesting her yields, she said the water had started destroying the cassava before they mature.
Flood forced farmers to harvest premature to save their yields.
Madam Jane was not alone as other farmers in the community lamented that though it was not harvest season, they were forced into premature harvest to save their yields.
According to Mrs. Roseline Ngozi, she was not even sure when the pool of water would dry up. She said the flood even forced her to relocate from her house in the community to Okobe, a nearby village. And for some days, she had been coming from the community to harvest her cassava.
Most houses in the community had been completely taken over by flood. Some of the residents were seen ferrying their belongings on their heads to safety.
Ikodo, Igwechi, Ongo, Enito were among communities in Ahoada West local government area that were taken over by the flood. Saturday Vanguard gathered that some residents in these areas were forced by the situation to relocate to Ahoada main town and other neighbouring villages yet to be affected by flood.
According to some victims, the problem started about a week ago. They said most of the affected communities had been used to flood problems in the past but not up to this current magnitude.
They said in the past, flood problem was witnessed in some parts of their communities around the end of October or early November. But the situation had a way of taking care of itself. They said they did not panic when they first saw the pool of water rising in their communities because they had thought it would disappear as it had always been.
But they became frightened with the mounting water level after about three days.
“ We had to rush to our farms to start harvesting our cassavas and yams. “, an elderly man told Saturday Vanguard.
Others said they had to start ferrying their personal effects to safety when it became clear that the pool of water was still rising by the day.
Mr Felix Felix who lives in Okobe community said the flood had started flowing into some farm lands in Okobe community, adding that some parts of the local government secretariat at Akinima had also been taken over by flood.
He said if the situation continued for another few days, the local government secretariat would be completely submerged by flood.
Most of the victims opined the problem was caused by Orashi River in the area that overflowed its bank.
Families postpone funeral plans
Saturday Vanguard investigations showed the devastating flood in the communities even forced families to reschedule the funeral rites of their loved ones. “There is no way we can do burial under this condition”.
Some families who spoke undercover said graves cannot be dug in a pool of water. In addition,they said strangers would not want to come to the area in the flood for burial programme. So they had to reschedule every burial arrangement to December, January, hoping that normalcy would have returned to the community then.
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY VISITS COMMUNITIES
The Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology was in the state as part of its oversight functions to inspect oil spill sites. And some of the communities affected by the flood were on the list of places to be visited by the Senate Committee.
It was in the course of going about its job in the state that the Committee ran into the flood comunities. The Committee could not inspect spill sites in some of the oil producing communities in Ahoada West local government area because of the flood problem.
The Rivers State Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Nyema Weli who was on the entourage was rattled by the problem. He said the state government was not aware there was flood challenge in the area. He however assured that urgent steps would be taken to mitigate the plights of victims of the flood.
Earlier, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Bukola Saraki said he was deeply touched by the plights of victims of the flood, stressing that his committee would officially get to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA to come to their aid. However, the South South zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Mr Emenike Umesi said they had been aware of the flood situation in the affected communities in the local government and had been working on the affected areas. He also listed Ndoni in Ogba Egbema Ndoni local government area as other areas affected.
He said they had concluded assessment of the affected communities to determine the level of assistance that could be given to the victims.
The NEMA Coordinator, Mr Umesi said in Ndoni his agency identified a camp for victims but it was swept off by flood. He said they had already alerted the local government authority of the incident. According to him, the local government would now give them another space to set up a fresh camp for the victims.
In an earlier interview with the Vanguard, Mr Umesi had appealed to states in the South South region to set up State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA to urgently tackle disasters of this nature.
He had said such agency would help to efficiently manage disaster situations in the region.
According to him, governments in the region should not wait for disaster predictions before they come up with concrete plans on how to effectively tackle disaster situations.
He said the region was on the coastal plain of the country so there was need to have emergency respondent measures on ground.
He further appealed to those living around the coastal plane in the region to be very vigilant, adding that SEMA would help a lot to achieve results in times of disaster management.
Mr Umesi said most areas in the region were prone to flood problems, stressing that a system should be worked out to take care of owners of farms affected by flood disaster.
He said the focus at the moment was making provisions for only physically displaced persons. “There is need to go beyond this to also compensate owners of farm lands taken over by flood”.The South South Coordinator also urged local governments to set up local government emergency management committee, adding that such proactive measures would help a lot in addressing challenges posed by natural disasters.
