Many communities in Anambra West Council area of Anambra State have been submerged by flood.
This was observed when the team of National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and Anambra State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, visited the council area for on the spot assessment of the level of damage caused by flood.
The communities visited during the tour include Odomagwu, Igbokenyi, Odeh, Igbede,Ukwalla, Owelle, Olumbanasaa, Innoma among others.
ABS observed that the houses, farm lands, farm produce, schools, health centres in these communities have been flooded.
Speaking with the ABS, the Zonal Coordinator, NEMA, Mr Thickman Tanimu, said the agency alongside SEMA came to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the flooded areas in order for them to update the government.
He said that on the 3rd of September this year, authorities from Cameroon informed Nigerian government that they will begin to release water from the Nago Dam and subsequently a flood alert was sent to the fifteen Frontline states that are likely to be affected by flooding of which Anambra is included.
Mr Tanimu mentioned measures the government has taken to assist the people living in the coastal communities to include sensitization, repositioning of stockpiles of relief materials for easy intervention and encouraged those affected to move upland for their safety.
In his comments, the Executive Director, SEMA, Mr Paul Odenigbo, disclosed that Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, camps are being put in place to evacuate those affected already.
On how to provide a permanent intervention at the coastal areas, Mr Odenigbo said if government builds a very high embankment on the coastal lines it will help as a measure to checkmate flooding in the area.
For the Transition Committee Chairman, Anambra West Council Area, Mr Felix Ikechi, while commending Governor Chukwuma Soludo for his commitment to the people of the area, asked the government to activate IDP camps in Onitsha and Otuocha so that the affected communities could go there for shelter to save their lives.
He also pointed out the need for government to be proactive in providing the camps before the floods wreck more havoc and lamented the devastating effects of the floods in the entire Anambra West Council area.
In their separate comments, Mr Someone Abora from Igbedo, and Mr Emmanuel Onwuadi, from Igbokenyi, explained that the flooding is a natural disaster that poses a great threat to the continued existence of the people of the area and appealed to the government to give them urgent assistance.
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