With the arrival of the much-predicted flood in Rivers State, especially around the Orashi region of the state, the state government has also swung into action.
Already, trucks loaded with relief materials have left Port Harcourt, the state capital, to the affected areas.
The distribution of the relief materials was flagged off early in the week by Ngozi Ordu, deputy governor and a professor of Pharmacology, who reiterated the resolve of Sim Fubara’s administration to achieve effective flood prevention and management in the state.
Ordu summoned media practitioners in her office to witness the flag-off and revealed how the committee on flood has worked out plans to prevent leakages such as diversion of relief materials by middle officials.
She said that the committee on Flood Prevention and Management moved truck-loads of relief materials to some council areas in the Orashi region in Rivers State.
The professor, who doubles as chairman, Flood Prevention and Management Committee, stated that the administration of Governor Fubara is concerned about the plight of the people, and is committed to improving their living conditions.
The professor explained the stages of preparation for the flood starting from formation of the committee to mapping and preparations. She said that the committee acted after the prediction of the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet) that 18 LGAs in the state were likely to be flooded.
She noted that the committee immediately swung into action, and that there were several phases involved for the committee to follow.
“We have the first phase, and that is what we call the pre-flood phase, and that is the sensitization phase. The second phase is when the flood is on, which entails the mitigation actions that should be taken. The third phase is post-flood interventions.
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“For the first phase, we had to do a lot of sensitization campaigns to enable the people to know what to look out for and what to do in a flood situation,” she disclosed.
There were meetings with the Caretaker Committee (CTC) chairmen, which, according to her, affirmed how proactive the committee has been.
Speaking further, Ordu said that when the CTC chairmen left and substantive ones came in, meetings were also held with them where they were advised to set up their own flood committees, to include; a public health medical officer and environmental sanitation officers.
The idea, according to her, was for the health and the environmental components to work together in addition to other members in the committee.
Ordu noted that tackling flooding is a tripartite work, with the federal, state, and local governments working in synergy to address the challenges.
She also noted that the local government chairmen in the state were supposed to identify highlands. The objective is to know ahead the places that could be used as Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps in the event of flood. Then the sanitation officers were to inspect if the areas were habitable.
“The cleaning of gutters in LGAs, sensitizing people and the repairs of broken culverts to help with the flow of water in the gutters and drain are jobs of the LGAs.
“After that, we decided to hold a general sensitization workshop where we called experts to participate. The essence was to communicate the importance of what people needed to do as individuals, as government, and as organisations.
“Having done that, the flood started coming in. So, going by NiMet prediction, there are areas that are more prone to flooding than others. By location of the LGAs, the areas are; Orashi region LGAs -Abua Odual, Ahoada West, Ahoada East, and One LGA.”
She also confirmed that the committee has moved into the affected communities, distributing relief materials such as 10kg bags of garri, cartons of noodles, bags of rice, wrappers, blankets, and cooking oil to the affected victims.
She said that the relief materials would be monitored because there have been complaints of diversion of such materials in previous years. According to her, “We have hotlines, one in the Secretary to the State Government, Tammy Danagogo’s office, another in my office, and also a WhatsApp group”.
She acknowledged the inadequacy of IDP camps in some flood-ravaged communities, but stated that the government was intensifying efforts to set up more camps.
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