By LALEYE DIPO

Two communities made up of not less than 1,000 households are reported to have been submerged by flood in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, while another 30 communities are under a similar threat.

The flooding was said to have been caused by the construction of the new multi-billion naira Zungeru Hydro Electric dam project, which is the second of such project sited in the local government area.

The Coalition of Concerned Shiroro Youths, which made this known in Minna while addressing a news conference, said residents of the two communities that have been submerged have been displaced from their ancestral homes and are now taking shelter with their kit and kin on safer grounds.

The spokesman of the youths, Abubakar Yussuf Kokki, named the submerged communities as Layi and Gaviya, while some of the communities under threat of being submerged include Sundna, Kokki, Tango, Shekadna, Gwaja, Guto and Giyi.

Kokki said: “The ravaging, devastating and catastrophic flooding upstream have submerged and consumed our people’s ancestral farmlands as well as washing away our crops. The level of devastation and destruction have gone out of proportion and beyond imagination.

“Our people have been rendered homeless and are currently hopelessly wallowing in misery and inhabitable condition, desperately looking for shelter.

“The challenges being experienced have their root causes from the failure of the authorities concerned to do the needful as it relates to creating adequate enlightenment and sensitisation campaign on the dangers ahead.

“The hitherto serene and good looking environments with dense vegetation have suddenly metamorphosed into neighbourhood eyesore.”

He blamed the situation on strong and sharp disconnect between government and the governed, adding that the unwanted and unhealthy disconnect needed to be formidably and correctly bridged in earnest.

Kokki described the situation in the communities as an invitation to anarchy, adding that with the affected people being predominantly peasant farmers, whose farmlands have been taken over from them without a lasting sustainable and workable alternatives, many consequences such as famine, collapse of local economies and social exclusion, among others, are imminent and inevitable. (THISDAY)

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