By: Ella Ogba
The Senator Representing Anambra North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Stella Oduah says Eight LGAs in Anambra state and several communities have been submerged as well as 170 deaths recorded in the ongoing flood ravaging some parts of the state.
Senator Oduah made this disclosure at the Senate plenary Thursday October 13, 2022 during call for urgent intervention for flood victims in Anambra especially in the riverine areas and other parts of the country under urgent public importance motion moved at the Red Chamber.
It would be recall that Anambra is having 21 local government areas of which Eight of them currently have most of their communities under water, as a result of flood. Though most of them are not strangers to water, as they are mostly referred to as the riverine areas of Anambra State, residents of the areas are already used to water, and have nothing to fear about it. They are mostly fishermen, and are conversant with water.
The 2012 flood can be said to be one of the most devastating, but an elder in Omor community of Ayamelum, LGA Mr Sunday Ibe during an interview with our correspondent that year had said: “We are not afraid of water, infact, the farmers and fishermen among us practically live in water, as most of them prefer to live in farm settlements, where they farm and fish, only coming into the communities when their products are due for sale, or at weekend.
Meanwhile, in Anaku, the Local Government Headquarters of Ayamelum Local Government Area, flood submerged the entire secretariat, while motorists, residents and visitors to the area were also reportedly trapped, as there was no access way back to town.
Mr. Paul Nwauba, one of those trapped, said that the flood was an annual occurrence that needed permanent solution. He also called for assistance in the form of boats to rescue trapped people. “We have been experiencing such but it is worse now as it has submerged the Onitsha/Ayamelum road, thereby trapping those at the Local Government Area, especially Anaku. The Ezu river has been submerged too, and the river covered by flood, thereby making it impassable for travellers and residents,” he stressed.
