Desperate residents of Bayelsa State struggling to keep their heads above floodwaters claim they have been abandoned by the government. The government says it is looking for long term solutions for the flooding. But they need a short term plan to save lives in a state where 80 percent of communities are already flooded.
It is November and in Bayelsa State at this time of the year, it is not uncommon to hear of people lost to the floods, like the two school children in the Azikoro axis of Yenagoa, the state capital, who drowned while trying to access their homes.
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The floods do not only take the children but adults as well. In Kaiama community, Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government, 38 year-old Catholic priest, Fr Francis Ighorurhie was also lost in the flood waters some weeks back.
Between September and November each year, life in Bayelsa, the state with the lowest elevation in Nigeria, becomes even more difficult as rivers Niger and Benue empty into the state on their way to the Atlantic Ocean. This means a loss of lives and property and the displacement of thousands of residents. In 2018, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said about 150,000 persons were displaced by the yearly flood.
Already this year, it is estimated that about 80% of communities in the state are flooded and countless houses submerged.
In previous years, the state government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) always set up Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camps for victims of the flooding. This year the situation is different.
For one, the water level is said to be higher than in previous years. This poses more threat to people. Without homes and without camps to shelter in, many people have taken to living by the streets, in small tents set up by the roadside.
Some of the victims blamed the government for not taking measures to help them considering that they had suffered losses during the COVID-19 lockdown and now the floods.
“It seems we don’t have a government at the moment in Bayelsa State,” Pastor Fetua Marcus, an indigene of Akenfa 1 community, said.
“People are suffering too much in this flood. Some don’t have where to lay their heads at night not to talk about what to eat and the government is not taking any action about it, it’s pathetic indeed,” he said.
Narrating her ordeal, another victim, Mrs Eneye Unity, 57, also from the same community in Yenagoa, said she and her 78 year-old husband and six children are now staying in a small space provided by a public-spirited person after the flood had sacked them from their home.
“It’s about one month and a week since water took over our home,” she said. “Our property have been destroyed, and we were helpless until somebody helped us with accommodation where my six children are staying now. My husband is staying at another good Samaritan’s house.
“So we survived this disaster by the grace of God, no help from the government at the moment, but we still believe in God that the government will do something about our plights,” she said.
Mr Henry Commissioner was dislodged from his community in Ibogene where the flood has taken over his house and business place. He now sleeps by a small tent by the road.
“As I’m talking to you, I don’t have any alternative place to sleep in except this tent that you see,” he said. “We fold it during day time and put it up in the night to at least sleep till the next day. We are happy that the water has stopped, it’s not flowing as it did about two weeks ago, which means that soon, it will begin to recede.”
Mr Commissioner said their suffering this year is compounded by the lack of assistance from the government.
“We have not seen anything this year,” he said. He said the cold and the mosquito bites they have to endure may cause them to fall ill.
“We don’t get help from anywhere, that is why we are pleading with the government to help us alleviate this suffering,” he said.
For Marvelous Abel and his brother, the thought of living on the street is scary enough so they decided to stay in their flooded home.
“Me and my brother are still staying inside the flooded house because we don’t have anywhere to go to,” he said. “We don’t have money to rent another house or to go to a hotel, so we just made a wooden bridge over the water to assist us move to our house and also raised another in the house above the water to at least sleep.”
It is not easy living like that, Maverlous said, as they have to contend with not only the floodwater but with mosquitoes as well. He said he is experiencing cold in his body and is afraid of falling ill.
“If government had provided IDPs camps as they always do in previous years, it would have helped us to manage there for a while,” he said. “The state government doesn’t care about our plights. They would have constructed this abandoned bridge and provided a space for IDPs or even give relief materials, but since this flood came, government has not done anything to help us.”
However, the State Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mr Ayibaina Duba said the state government is looking at scientific approaches to proffer a lasting solution to the perennial flooding.
He said the State Executive Council has raised a committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Konbowei Benson to assess the impacts of the flood on the people and advise the government on the next course of action.
Governor Douye Diri while inspecting flooded communities in the state recently, lamented the devastating effect of the flooding on the people and communities, and promised that his administration would not abandon affected persons.
He also promised that relief materials would be sent to victims of the disaster as a temporary measure.
“I will continue with this visit to empathise and sympathise with our brothers and sisters. Let me assure all of them that as a state we are with them.
“We also appeal to Mr. President to immediately come to our aid, particularly with respect to the ecological fund and all other funds available to ensure that our people are not neglected.
“I have directed the Vice Chancellor of the Niger Delta University to immediately explore and ensure that a department be created for erosion control in the institution, because government is working to proffer a permanent solution to the flooding challenge,” he said.
Despite this promise, victims maintain that they have received no assistance from the government not yet.
Consequently, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), in collaboration with the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), and the Disaster Response Unit of the military (DRU) and other relevant security agencies have agreed to assist flood victims in the state with relief materials.
