By: Celestine Ukah
*Residents say state Government remains adamant to flood warning by NEMA, NIHSA
Early morning heavy rain that lasted for about two hours has taken over some part of Jeddo, Ughoton, Ugbokodo and other neighbouring communities in Okpe LGA of Delta state.
The heavy downpour disrupted business activities and students going to school were due to it delayed in going to school while others couldn’t attempt to come out of their homes to swim in the flooded streets in the area.
Some of the streets affected in Oduma layout off new Okpe road, former Cranefield road, ending of Red Beret Police Road in Jeddo lamented about the havoc caused them by the flood the rain brought to the locality as water could not find its way faster through the drains due to much flow pressure from other channels to the shallow drains.
Residents in Jeddo, Ughoton, Ugbokodo and in main Warri city centre accused the Delta state government of being adamant to flood warnings from different relevant federal government agencies including the Nigeria Environmental Management Agency, NEMA, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, NIHSA and Nigeria Meteorological Agency, NiMET.
They are urging the Delta state government to immediately intervene in the flood issue looming in the identified flood LGAs and communities in the state as predicted by the government agencies and as well evacuate those living at flood prone areas in the state.
Flood also ravaged some homes at the Jeddo area , Chairman of the Odume layout, Engr. Osuogu appealed to the Delta state government and other interventionist agencies to come to their aid by constructing the access roads in the adjoining streets to the New Okpe road as well construct more bigger drainage in order to allow easy flow of the water to the drains.
Here is the statement of the government agencies warning of intending flooding: “the Director-General, National Environment Management Agency (NEMA), Mr. Mustapha Ahmed, said that the agency had identified 233 local government areas in 32 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which were predicted to experience flooding this year. Ahmed made this disclosure at a national consultative workshop on 2022 flood preparedness, mitigation and response organised by the agency in Abuja.
“According to him, the workshop was one of the steps outlined by the agency to bring stakeholders together, and was aimed at collectively preparing and providing strategies to strengthen flood risk mitigation and effective response. According to him, this followed the 2022 seasonal climate prediction released by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the annual flood outlook released by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA).
“He said: “Efforts must be made to mitigate and respond effectively to flooding. We have sent advisory letters and maps showing predicted flood risk areas in various states to the respective state governments.” While explaining that NEMA had produced risk maps for vulnerable local government areas as forecast by NIHSA’s annual flood outlook, the NEMA boss urged state emergency management agencies and local emergency management committees to be proactive. This, he said, would ensure effective and efficient flood preparedness, mitigation and response. On her part, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Farouq, called on relevant stakeholders to take proactive measures in addressing flood and its associated impacts”.
