Some 24 hours after floods and filth overran the popular Okere Road in Warri, Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, distraught victims have accused the state government of negligence that led to the destruction of their means of livelihood.

Checks by our correspondent on Sunday morning revealed that residents and shop owners, whose properties were submerged by flood after a six-hour torrential downpour on Saturday morning, were salvaging what was left behind by the flood.

Said to be the first of its kind in the area, the Okere canal overflowed its banks while the bridge was submerged by the raging flood, aside from forcefully finding its way into houses and shops around the canal.

Worse still was the deluge of assorted plastic bottles, nylons, and other filth that accompanied the flood to the various residents’ homes.

On both sides of the Okere road, residents and shop owners who, ordinarily, should be at their various worship centres on Sunday were seen frantically bailing out water from their abodes.

Soaked mattresses, flannel, electrical appliances, clothes, shoes, bags, kitchen utensils, and several other household items were being sanitised thanks to the benevolent weather.

Those who have their residential apartments located in the area, as gathered, had to take shelter over the night elsewhere as their homes were submerged by the flood.

A textile and tailoring shop owner, Mrs Bekere Olologbo, who spoke to our correspondent who spotted her bailing out water and sunning what is left of her wares, said the flooding of the area was strange.

Amid sobs, she said her consignment of bales of clothes she got recently, having just started the trade, as well as her industrial machine, were submerged in the flood.

“I live on Jakpa Road. I was called upon around 6:00 a.m. on Saturday to come to my store because water had taken over. And my store is on a high hill.

“I was wondering how that could have happened. Like a joke, I rushed down Okere Road, and the volume of water was up to my waist in front of my store.

“In fact, we could practically swim in it. I tried to salvage what I could of my very expensive bales of wrappers for women and took them home to sun them.

“I started selling bales of materials this year, and I’m just getting known in the business. My wares are worth millions of naira. The ones left here can still be sold. But this flood has brought some setbacks to my business,” she lamented.

She blamed the flooding on the delay by the state government in completing the storm drainage being constructed across the road as well as the incomplete dredging of the canal about a week ago by the task force led by the Director General, Special Duties, Governor’s Office, Asaba, Mr Frank Omare.

“Gov. Oborevwori should help us. I’m a tailor. I have mouths to feed. Water hasn’t gotten here before. It was the dredging they executed halfway about a week ago and the uncompleted storm drainage that led to the flooding.

Today, Sunday, I couldn’t go to church because of my damaged goods. The storm drainage they’d been constructing across the road, which they haven’t finished, also added to the flooding. Many people have lost their valuables, especially household items,” she lamented.

A man, who appears to be her husband but declined to identify himself, also blamed the flood on the Omare-led task force, which, he said, did a perfunctory job when they brought a swamp buggy to dredge the canal some days ago.

According to him, rather than dredge the bottom of the Okere bridge, which is stuffed with garbage, the team only did a part of the canal and left, and then the flood came in its might, unannounced.

“The new storm drainage yet to be completed was one of the causes. The government also came to dredge one side of the canal but refused to go under the bridge. There are still more disasters if something urgent is not done,” he warned.

Another resident, who also craved anonymity, was found bailing out water, packing his soaked mattresses, and removing damaged furniture and electrical appliances from his apartment to spread in the sun “What do I have to say, my brother?” he quipped when our reporter accosted him.

Meanwhile, as of the time our reporter examined the canal before taking his leave, the water with its plastic garbage had begun to flow down to the Warri River courtesy of a swamp buggy said to be dredging one end of the canal towards the Warri River.

While speaking to journalists a fortnight ago, during a demolition exercise of illegal structures built on flood plains, Mr Omare vowed to fulfil the mandate “to remove illegal structures all over the state; in every local government area,” alleging that most buildings occupying waterways are believed to be responsible for the annual flooding of houses in Warri and Uvwie local government areas of the state. (Sunday Tribune)

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