Scenes Of Flood In Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
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Endurance Smart, a week-old baby is battling for survival at one of the camps for flood victims in Bayelsa State. The toddler who hails from Agbobi, Biseni, in Yenagoa Local Government Area, was born in a pool of water by a traditional birth attendant at the community.
Her mother, Blessing, was trying to change her napkin when PUNCH METRO visited the Sports Complex, Yenagoa, which had been turned into a refugee camp by the state government.
Blessing said, “We named her Endurance because of the circumstances surrounding her birth. She was born in a pool of water when flood began to cover our community.
“We thought it was a joke. But six days after her birth, the water level had risen to my hip. I had to abandon my properties and carried her to the refugee camp.”
Like Blessing and her daughter, other victims who came for succour at the camp had similar agonising stories. Their homes have been submerged, their farmlands washed away and their properties destroyed by the ravaging flood. Communities in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area such as the Niger Delta University and Amasoma have been submerged.
Most of the settlements in Ogbia, the Local Government Area of President Goodluck Jonathan have been sacked. The woman Representative of Governor Seriake Dickson in the area, Mrs. Unity Ototo, said the entire constituency two comprising over 19 villages had been taken over by the flood. “Oloibiri, the community where oil was first discovered, has been wiped out. The Kolo Creek, Otuogid, OluEbum and even Otueke are all affected,” she said.
Many people, she said, were trapped in the flood because they could not flee the affected area.
Ototo said, “They have no access to communication. They don’t even know that a camp has been set up. The communication gadgets in the area have been shut down.
“Transformers are submerged and there is no light. Some of them are even afraid of abandoning their properties. It is a serious humanitarian crisis.” In Ekeremor, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Youth Empowerment, Mr. Godwin Adokeme, described the situation in the area as devastating.
PUNCH Metro also observed that Yenagoa metropolis in the capital city was under threat. The flood has already taken over communities surrounding the local government area. Biseni, Igbogene, Akenfa and other settlements in Yenagoa have been sacked.
Dickson, however, inaugurated the state Emergency Response Flood Management Committee for immediate evacuation of flood victims and provision of relief materials to all the local government areas.
The committee comprising more than 20 government officials has the deputy Governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd.), as chairman while Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Edmund Oguru is to serve as its secretary.
But Blessing complained of mosquitoes and excessive cold at the victims’ camp. She said the government had given the victims mosquito nets to reduce mosquito bites.
“The state government has tried but we need further assistance. We need a better camp, medical care and we appeal to the Federal Government, international organisations and corporate organisations to assist us,” she said.
Culled from The Punch Nigeria.
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Simply Cheska...
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