NDDC Pledges to End Flooding in N’Delta

* To build dam, transit houses for victims

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The new management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the leadership of Dr. Samuel Ogbuku has expressed the determination of the intervention agency to end the effects of flood disaster on the victims in the Niger Delta region.

This was as the NDDC Managing Director, Dr. Ogbuku has stated that the recent comments on the Commission’s activities by former Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, served as a push for positive change in driving the development process in the region.
Ogbuku, who spoke yesterday, during a media parley at the headquarters of the commission in Port Harcourt, said the commission has concluded plans to build a dam, as an intervention to save the people in the region from the effects of flood.

The NDDC boss also revealed that in less than three weeks, the commission would begin the construction of transit camps in four states of the region highly affected by flood, so as to save lives and still give hopes to victims, adding that the project will be ready by November this year.

Ogbuku who expressed concern of the commission on the yearly effect of the flood in the region, said the transit camps would have schools and sick bay in the case of emergency, adding that the dam when constructed would also act as a source of power generation in the region.
“We are very concerned about the welfare of our people when it comes to flood period. So we are also trying to take step to ensure that we have our immediate response and look at the future.

“Looking into the future, we have engaged a consultant on designing a dam because we believe that from the study we have gotten. Most of the studies and advise we have gotten, is that for the Niger Delta to be safe, we need to have a Dam that will control the inflow of water.
“So, we have already commissioned the consultant to design a dam and with that design we can approach the federal government, the state governments and possibly other international bodies for partnership to build a dam.

“We believe that you cannot be going out to discuss with somebody without showing your level of seriousness. So let us take up that cost of the design first, because we are looking into the future, we are calling that project ‘Converting Liability to Asset’, because the liability is the flood but in the dam will also be used for power generation, irrigation and therefore it becomes asset, especially, now that the federal government has liberalise power generation, meaning we can also make money out of it.

“But on the short time, we have also made a plan to ensure that we construct transit homes. Those transit homes will shelter our disaster victims, because over the years if you look at the Niger Delta, once disasters are coming there is possibly no preparation for where to relocate people to.”
On food security, Ogbuku revealed “we have provisions for fertilisers and seedlings, so that after the flood the people will need to survive because flood washes away some of our crops. We want to ensure we encourage our people in agriculture because as you can see the federal government has declared emergency in agriculture.”

Meanwhile, the NDDC boss had commended former Governor Wike for the milestones he achieved in urban centre modernisation, stating that his remarks about the Commission would spur them to positively change the narrative about the interventionist agency.
Ogbuku stated: “We will not join issues with former Governor Nyesom Wike. He has done well for the people of Rivers State, especially in the area of urban modernisation. Rather, we are spurred by his comments to change the narrative about the NDDC positively.”