Flood is a natural disaster that displaces people anytime it comes especially in the Niger Delta region where it has become a yearly occurrence. For the people of the region, they know when it comes and when it goes especially the perennial flooding that also displaces some people when it comes.
That is a normal flood for them but that of 2022 was extraordinary as it displaced about ninety five percent of Bayelsans.
In Bayelsa state, the flood wreaked havoc because most of the water channels were blocked by the residents including the high and the mighty in the state. An example is the water channel at the Okutukutu axis where a dike was constructed across the canal to supposedly stop water from getting to the event center of the wife of a ‘big man’ in the state.
That of course caused the water that was supposed to find its level from that axis down to Okaka and to Azikoro village. This could not happen last year as the water instead of following the natural channel found its way into Yenaogoa metropolis and flooded everywhere including the street that is housing the event center and the center.
Just like last year, another flood alert has come and from all indications, it will come as none of the water channels had been opened as at the time of filing this report.
Bayelsa residents are beginning to get agitated as most of them spoken to by this reporter said they would leave the state if this year’s flood gets to the level it got to last year.
Flood Alert:
To prepare ahead of the flood, the senate has advised all that are living along the flood prone areas to get ready relocate to a safer ground. It also urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to urgently implement a community-resettlement plan to relocate residents from high-risk areas. The senate also urged the Ecological Fund Office (EFO) and NEMA to jointly and urgently engage relevant experts to conduct the assessment and implement measures, such as slope stabilization, gabion installations, terracing, re-vegetation and construction of retaining walls to prevent further losses and minimize the risks to nearby infrastructure, communities, LGAs, and states.
The chamber also called on CFO and NEMA to establish community-based initiatives to enhance resilience, such as emergency response teams, evacuation plans and the formation of local task forces focused on disaster management; outlining the achieved milestones, challenges encountered and plans for future actions.
Also Mustapha Ahmed, the director-general of the national emergency management agency, had issued a warning of upcoming severe flooding this year as indicated by predictions from relevant agencies.
In a two-day experts’ technical meeting on 2023 climate-related disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies in Abuja, Ahmed said that this had earlier been revealed in the seasonal climate predictions and annual flood outlooks by the Nigerian meteorological agency and the Nigeria hydrological services agency.
He said “We have started early this year as we are ready for early warning and early action. We will bombard every citizen, state and local government with this information as we want them to know that it is serious and we will not keep quiet, because we want them to know that there will be flood this year.
Also the director-general of Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, Clement Nze, disclosed that 178 LGAs in 32 states and the FCT had been predicted to experience severe flooding in 2023.
He said, “This time, we came out early with this prediction and we expect that relevant actors, governments and individuals will go to work. We expect that actions should be taken, especially at the sub-national levels, early enough, to mitigate the impact of flooding in the country.
What can be done?
Some of those things that can be done is clearing of canals that are already blocked and overgrown with weeds. That was always done by the previous government on a yearly basis even as residents are also expected to clear the drainages around their houses and are expected to stop dropping dirt and plastics in the drainage systems because government will not do everything for the residents.
Of course one of the reasons why last year’s flood overwhelmed Bayelsans was because the drainages and the canals were not cleared before the flood came only for the state government to come with some swamp buggies to try doing something when the flood was almost gone.
One of those swamp buggies of course was vandalized at Airforce road thereby stopping the clearing of that canal even though it was no longer relevant at that point.
Bayelsa Government Establishes Directorate:
In a bid to avert what happened last year, the Bayelsa State government sometime in March, set up flood and erosion control directorate.
The Directorate has Omuso D. Omuso as director general and Daniel Tenemeni Ebi as secretary,
Edmond Allison Oguru, Iyeritei Quickpenny, Amos Waritimi, Peter Niemennam Ikuli, Ebifuro Odubo (representative of Niger Delta University), Kingsley Onyeche, Winston Bellgam, technical adviser and Harcourt Adukeh to serve as technical adviser.
The committee was charged with the responsibility of addressing the threats of erosion with the utmost priority that it deserves; develop sustainable flood management practices, introduce erosion control techniques and design flood resistant structure that can be adopted to mitigate the risks involved in the very near future.
Committee Resumes Work:
The committee started work few weeks ago with the assessment of flood-prone areas in order to provide solutions to the problems of flooding in the state.
Speaking during the exercise in Yenagoa, the Director General, Wilson Omuso, stated that the reason for the on-the-spot assessment was to ascertain the level of work required to open canals and drainages across the state, noting that, work would commence immediately after the assessment exercise.
Omuso, who assured that the flood problems would be taken care of before the 2023 flood, solicited the support and cooperation of Bayelsans and residents to achieve the directorate’s mandate. He said the agency would not relent until the flood issues were addressed.
The Secretary of the Directorate, Mr. Daniel Tenemeni, noted that the canals and channels inspected were sufficient to solve the issues of flooding by emptying flood water into the Epie and Azikoro creeks and called on Bayelsans to refrain from dumping refuse in the natural canals and building structures on waterways.
The Directorate had earlier visited Sampou and Odi communities in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area, with expectation to embark on more assessment visits to cover other flood-prone areas in the state.
Calls on Government to clear the Canals:
Some residents of Airforce road Okaka, recounting their ordeal last year called on the state government to quickly move in and clear the canals before the flood comes.
One of them Madam Preye Dangosu who resides by the canal said she ran away from her house last year because of flood. She said will just pack to Nembe her community immediately she gets the sign that the flood is coming, adding that she can’t afford to face the same thing she faced last year.
Calling on the state government to come in and clear the canals, she said that the canals were cleared yearly when Seriake Dickson was the governor of the state.
She said in Pidgin English “This governor I don’t understand. Please let them come and clear the canals because flood is coming again. I can’t face what I faced last year. Instead I will run to my community Nembe until the flood is over.
At the Okutukutu area of Yenagoa a dike was built just across the water channel. But that dike contributed a lot to the flooding last year. The community people angrily pulled down the dike but when this reporter went bank there recently, the dike had been reconstructed.
A resident of the area, Tare Ibomo, called on the state government to come and remove the dike before the flood sets in.
He said “Government should come and pull down this thing. Because of the dike last year the whole Yenagoa was flooded because this canal supposed to take this water to Azikoro village. But it has closed the water channel.
On his part, Ineife Ogilo asked the residents to clear their drainages. He advised residents to stop dumping refuse at the drainages.
He said, “Residents should not expect the government to come and clear their gutters. It is not proper. Even as the state government is being tackled, residents should live up their expectation too. They should stop dumping refuse and plastics in the gutters.
Recommendations:
The flood alert came early enough as early as January this year but as at the time of filing in this report, aside from the committee set up not much seems to be done by the state government. The residents are not also helping maters as most of them are still busy building on the water channels.
The residents as a matter of urgency should start clearing their gutters from now on while the state government should push the swamp buggies into the canals to start the clearing. With these and other steps the havoc that is usually caused by the flood may be reduced.
