The annual flooding in Bayelsa might be over, but as displaced residents return, they have to reclaim their homes from dangerous reptiles that had taken refuge in them.
As floodwaters dry up and displaced persons across most of the communities ravaged by the flooding return home, they are now facing another challenge.
In their absence, snakes, lizards and other dangerous reptiles have moved in with the water. Now, they are reluctant to leave.
Since the flood, hardly any day passes without residents killing snakes around their environment, a situation that has caused worries amongst parents who fear their young children could be hurt.
Some residents said they have to spend much in fumigating the house and environment, after the flood, while others who could not afford the services of professional fumigators are adopting the local way of combining dry pepper and smoke to decontaminate their surroundings.
Unfortunately, the surrounding creeks and canals that pass through some residential areas have made the situation more worrisome, as reptiles mostly creep out from those places.
In the weeks that homeowners were away, it is feared that dangerous reptiles also fleeing the floodwaters found refuge in people’s houses, in their ceilings and roofs and now pose danger to the returning residents, especially at nights.
A Yenagoa-based journalist, Pastor Mike Tayese, who was displaced by the flood, said it’s always a nasty experience for returnees and the environment itself.
He said that for them to live freely, devoid of the danger from reptiles, they must first fumigate the environment and after that, they carry out proper cleaning of the building.
Aside from that, they have to pour chemicals in some strategic places such as soakaway pits and toilets to ensure that some reptiles that may be hiding there are terminated.
“The aftermath of flooding is always a harrowing experience because it looks as if you started living in the building newly. When the water takes over your surroundings for a period of one or two months, within this period, there are some dangerous animals, especially reptiles, that find their ways to the surroundings.
“But after the water might have receded, the first thing to do to ensure the environment is safe is to fumigate your compound, and after that, you carry out proper cleaning in and out, and watering of the floors with chemicals or any disinfectant. But these things cost money and for people who have been displaced for months, it may be difficult to afford that.
“So, to avoid danger from reptiles bite, especially snakes, it is pertinent to ensure chemicals are effectively used to scare the reptiles off, though, this process involves time and money, but it has become a yearly ritual because flood will always come every rainy season,” he said.
Godsgift Ndutimi, another resident who was displaced, said since he returned to the house, he has killed about five snakes despite fumigating his environment.
He pleaded with the government to ensure that the entire state is fumigated yearly, especially after the flood, to save the citizens the stress of going through this process and the danger of being harmed by reptiles.
“You know how Bayelsa environment is, we have swamps and creeks near residential places, and during the flood, those reptiles and dangerous animals will be looking for survival and where to hide, in that process, they find their ways to our environment.
“Reptiles especially like cold places, they could remain in the residential environment and multiply, and after the displaced persons might have returned home, it now becomes harmful to them, except proper fumigation and cleaning is done.
“These things involve money, how many of the displaced persons even have money to feed, not to talk about buying chemicals and involving the services of experts to fumigate their houses for them, so some of them just clean the house, light bonfires to smoke the house and then live in it, which is not very safe,” he said.
There is danger involved in lighting fires in the house like that, and Godsgift admitted that, saying such acts could trigger an inferno.
A resident of Biogbolo-Epie community in Yenagoa Local Government, Mr Michael Ndubuisi, at the peak of the flood, killed a huge python measuring about 10 feet long in his surroundings.
Ndubuisi said he killed the snake in his flooded backyard off Green Villa Road at Biogbolo-Epie suburb. He then strapped it to a stake and displayed it along the Isaac Boro Expressway near Opolo Roundabout.
“I killed it in my backyard last night. I used a cutlass and targeted its head. I left it to struggle and die after hitting it. This morning, I went to check and it was dead,” he said.
Disturbed by the influx of reptiles in the neighbourhoods, some parents are limiting the movements of their children and wards, especially at nights, to avoid snake bites.
The Bayelsa state sanitation agency has also urged residents to always use the last Saturday of the month set aside for the general sanitation exercise to clean their environment, clear canals and cut grasses around their environment.
Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mr Ayibaina Duba, while responding to concerns of the citizens during the heat of the flood, said the state government is looking at scientific approaches to proffer lasting solutions to the perennial flooding in the state.
He said the State Executive Council has raised a committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Konbowei Benson to assess the impact of the flood on the people and advise the government on the next course of action.
For many residents returning to their once flooded homes, the battle to reclaim their houses, first from the water and now from reptiles is still a long way from over.
