NOA Team in Delta to Warn Residents of Impending Flood

*We can’t afford repeat of 2012, 2022 experience, D-G cautions

Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, has stressed the urgent need for residents in low-lying and flood-prone communities in Delta and other states to relocate to higher ground while they still have the time, in view of imminent flooding in Nigeria in the coming days and weeks.

He said that the country could not afford a repeat of the devastating floods of 2012 and 2022, which resulted in the loss of over 600 human lives while over 10,000 houses submerged, over 600,000 people displaced and property running into billions of naira lost across the country.

The NOA director-general spoke through the leader of the NOA Flood Sensitisation and Evaluation Team, Mallam Nuru Yusuf Kobi, who is the agency’s Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Abuja, during the team’s visit Asaba, the Delta State capital, and some designated flood-prone communities in Delta North, including Oko in Oshimili South Local Government Area, at the weekend.

While noting that the agency has opened all channels of communication to alert especially flood-prone communities to the looming danger of devastating flooding of the Niger and Benue banks and distributaries, the NOA D-G stressed that the team was walking round the clock as it engaged the concerned communities across the country.

Kobi said, “We are here, being one of the identified areas, to warn our people of the impending flood, because the Lagdo Dam in Cameroun has been opened to release water; so the people living along the banks of River Benue and the lower Niger River are witnessing the effects of the rising levels of water in the two major rivers.

“They are releasing not less than five million cubic meters of water into the River Benue.

“This has increased the volume of water in the river channels; and, the likely expectation is that there is going to be flooding.”

“We had very bad experience in 2012 and 2022, where not less than 600,000 (six hundred thousand) people were displaced and over ten thousand houses were submerged. This time around, we want to be proactive and put the affected communities in adequate state of readiness.”

He warned coastal or riverside communities in the state about the imminence of flooding and real danger posed by the rising water levels particularly along the rivers’ banks.

He urged them to cooperate with relevant federal and state emergency response agencies.

Acvording to Kobi, the NOA swung into action when the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency (NIHSA) had hinted that relevant authorities in neighboring Cameroun had informed its Nigerian counterparts that the Lagdo Dam was overflowing and needed to release water to save the dam, which would signified widespread flooding and environmental damage in parts of Nigeria.

“Therefore, the National Orientation Agency ( NOA) is alerting the populace especially the eleven states identified as “Frontline States”, which include Delta, on precautionary measures, and most importantly, sensitizing residents to evacuate the flood-prone areas.

“We are simply putting them in readiness for the impending flood because prevention is always better than cure. As a result, flooding is threatening about 144 local government areas in eleven states.

“We would want to put the people in readiness, we want ensure also that the community’s drainage system is maintained and clear of debris. Therefore, we should make it a point of duty to clear all drainage and natural water channels in the community.”

At the palace of the traditional head of Oko Community, the council of elders and youths, led by John Ogwezi Nwamanna, the Onihe/Iyasele of Okakwu of Oko Amakom, received the NOA team.

The traditional ruler thanked that NOA team for the visit and encouragement, and pledged his people’s readiness to comply with government’s directives and take precautionary measures to cushion the impact of the coming flood.

Nonetheless, the Oko Community Youth Secretary, Mr Daniel Keme Ogbuchi, described the visit of the NOA officials as timely, noting that Oko Community had suffered incalculable losses and untold hardship in the past due to the seasonal flood that ravaged the area, because the people were unprepared.

Aside the loss of several lives, crops had been harvested prematurely while numerous property could not be retrieved from the surging flood, Ogbuchi recalled of previous years of flooding experience in the Oko community and environs, assuring that they would not be taken unawares this time.

Speaking with THISDAY during the NOA engagement visit to Oko Community, the Delta State NOA Director-General, Mrs Tracy Omamode Ikolomi, said that the national agency was in Delta State to reason with the leaders and people of identified flood-prone and previously impacted areas on the need to commence prompt action to mitigate the likely impact of the coming flood without further delay.

She suggested the building of more dams at strategic locations could provide lasting solution to the recurring flooding in the country.

However, there were signs of rising surface water levels in the area as some children were seen at Oko Amakom community playing with wooden canoe on the heavily flooded road said to connect Oko-Amakom with a neighboring community.

Earlier, Mallam Kobi and other NOA and SEMA officials as well as clergymen had joined Dr Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, Director-General of Delta State Orientation and Communication Bureau as guests on an NTA Asaba live programme, towards sensitization of the people of the state on the impending flood emergency situation.

Meanwhile, the Delta State Flood Management Committee, which has the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr Kingsley Emu as Chairman, has been touring affected communities in different local government areas, including Oshimili South and Oshimili North; Ndokwa East, Ndokwa West, Isoko North, Isoko South, Ughelli South, Bomadi, Patani, Warri South-West, Warri South and Burutu.