Five Communities in Anambra Submerged by Flood

• ASATU appeals to NEMA, SEMA for intervention

Charles Onyekamuo in Awka

No fewer than five rural communities in Anambra State have been submerged by flood hampering human and vechicular movements in those areas.

The President General of the Association of Anambra State Town Unions (ASATU), Dr JAP Okolo, raised the alarm wednesday in Awka, the state capital.

He said the communities mostly affected in the riverine areas of the state are Eziagulu Otu Aguleri, Mmiata Anam, Umuoba Abegbu Anam, Iyiora Anam and Umueze Anam, adding that the water hyacinth weeds in Omambala river which traverses Anambra East and West Local Government Areas and empties into the River Niger impedes residents of the area to evacuate their farm produce to the upland areas.

He therefore called on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Anambra State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to assist in clearing the waterways of riverine communities in Anambra East and Anambra West local government areas of water hyacinth to enable them evacuate to upland areas.

Okolo said the water hyacinth covers a stretch of some 40 kilometers on the Ezichi, Oda River waterways from Eziagulu Otu Aguleri through other coastal communities.
He said the people could not come out because of the inability of boats to move on the weeds which had taken over the waterways.

“People of Anambra East and West cannot come out and they need the intervention of the SEMA and NEMA to be able to be evacuated,” he said.