Yenagoa – The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) disclosed on Sunday that over 150,000 persons in Bayelsa State had been displaced by flood disaster this year.
This was just as Governor Seriake Dickson raised the alarm that over 70 percent of the communities in the state had been submerged by the raging flood.
He announced that the sum of N50 million had been earmarked by the state government to procure and distribute relief materials to the 150,000 flood victims.
Yakubu Suleiman, NEMA’s Coordinator of Emergency Operations Centre ‘E’, comprising Rivers and Bayelsa states, who disclosed this during a chat with reporters in Yenagoa, said the figure might increase.
Suleiman said several homes, farmlands, schools, and churches had been submerged in communities across the eight local government areas of the state.
He said, “We have carried an assessment. The ravaging flood has so far affected and displaced no fewer than 150, 000 persons and the number keeps growing because the water is rising on daily basis.
“Several communities have been submerged; markets, schools, hospitals, and churches are already under the water.
“We have cleared some portions of lands for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) at Biseni and we have mounted some tents at Egbebiri community all in Yenagoa Local Government Area.
“We have over 110 tents to be mounted in different locations; the emergency monitoring team is working round the clock to ensure that every affected home is assisted.
“There is a medical team on the ground, because, you know, once the water is polluted the next thing will be diseases. We have health experts from the Federal Ministry of Health and members of the Red Cross Society.
“On potable water for the affected persons, we have brought water-treated plants and it will be installed in the camp so that the people will have access to potable water.”
Governor Dickson, who toured some communities affected by the flood, noted that the severity of the flood was such that some of the communities had been cut-off by the increasing water level, which had got to window and lintel levels in some places.
He was accompanied by the representatives of the NEMA, state security community, the police, the army, the air force, the navy, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and others.
The governor spoke to journalists in the middle of a road in front of his father’s compound at Toru Orua with water rushing at a frightening rate from the Forcados River into the community.
Dickson and those who embarked on the tour with him observed that Biseni community and settlements around it in Yenagoa Local Government Area could no longer be accessed by road.
The convoy of cars had to be turned back when the people came out in boats on the tarred road to say that accessing the area by road had been rendered impossible by the raging flood with the rising water level.
Also, Dickson and his team visited other communities which were submerged by the raging waters with the desperate people in need of shelters for relief materials at Sampou, Kaiama, Odi in Kolokuma/Okpokuma Local Government Area and Sagbama, Bolou Orua, Toru Orua, and several others in Sagbama Local Government Area.
It was observed that a substantial part of the state capital, Yenagoa, especially Tombia, Akempai, and others were seriously affected by the flood.
Dickson said the impact of the flood made the State Executive Committee and the State Security Committee to take a decision during their meetings on Friday to close down all schools in Bayelsa with immediate effect to enable the management to take the students to their parents.
He described the flood as a major disaster which had affected the state with thousands of people rendered homeless.
The governor also identified several public premises which were not affected by the flood for immediate conversion to temporary internally displaced camps in the state.
He called on the Federal Government for urgent support to the state to combat the humanitarian challenges thrown up by the flooding.
The government, that called on the Federal Government to declare a flood emergency in Bayelsa, observed that the coastal state which was below the sea level, was omitted when the government declared emergency flood situation in four states – Kogi, Niger, Delta, and Anambra – on September 18, 2018.
He argued that the flood situation in Bayelsa was inevitable as the entire state was below sea level, with all the major rivers and tributaries through which water flows from the River Niger and Benue to the Atlantic Ocean.
He said the state government had set up a Special Committee to manage the flood situation comprising top government officials and the security services under the leadership of the Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah.
Dickson said: “We have spent the whole day going from one local government area to the other; going from one community to the other; assessing the situation and seeing firsthand the way our people are coping with this major disaster.
“Community after community, we have seen women, children, and men managing to survive a very difficult situation. So, I want to first of all, on behalf of the state government and the good people of this state, appreciate the resilience of our people who are affected in the various communities.
“What has happened in this state is that about 70 percent of our state right now is under water as we speak. Almost 70 percent of our communities are under water now and people are now grappling for survival. What we have seen is really, serious, dangerous and touching. This is a major disaster that has affected the state.”
Speaking also, Kayode Fagbemi, representative of the NEMA, said having observed the pathetic flooding situation in Bayelsa during the tour of the affected communities with the governor, he would report his findings to Abuja.
He said the agency had sent 20 of its staff to Bayelsa, preparatory to the anticipated flooding in the state.
The post Flooding Displaces Over 150,000 Persons In Bayelsa – NEMA appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
Source: Daily Independent
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