The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has said a total of 3,200 people were affected following the Thursday’s flooding in Federal Housing Egbu, Owerri North Local Government in Imo.

The agency also disclosed that property worth over N50 millions were destroyed by the flood.

The NEMA Coordinator, Owerri operations office, Mr Evans Ugoh, disclosed this in an interview with the newsmen on Friday.

Ugoh said the primary cause of the heavy flooding in the area was the ongoing urban renewal embarked upon by the state government.

He explained that contractors working in various sites have destroyed the central drainage system, which was connected to the popular Otammiri River in the state.

Ugoh said the waterways were disorganised and the flood eventually found its way to the area where so many houses were submerged.

NAN reports that the down pour, which started early hours of Thursday, wreaked havoc in Federal Housing Egbu, bank road, Amakaohia.

Ugoh, however, lamented that contractors working in various sites in the ongoing urban renewal programme of Gov. Rochas Okorocha had caused more harm than good.

“Our drainage is gone and most houses built on the waterways will continue to have this problem until the anomaly is corrected,” he said.

He advised that Imo government to implore uncommon courage and willpower to demolish all the houses built on the waterways.

He also advised the government to ensure close monitoring on contractors working in various sites and mandate them to channel the waterways properly.

The NEMA boss disclosed that he has requested for some relief materials, saying that NEMA will intervene in due soon.

In a related development, 458 farms under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) anchor borrowers’ scheme have been submerged by flood in parts of Kwara State.

The farms are situated on the 3,200 hectares federal government’s Tada-Shonga irrigation land for rice cultivation in Shonga, Edu Local Government Area of the state. The produce was due for harvest in October, this year.

The Kwara State governor, Alh Abdulfatah Ahmed, who led a federal lawmaker, Aliyu Ahman-Patigi, representative of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Elijah Aderibigbe and the Managing Director, Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority, Mr. Adeniyi Aremu, to the flooded farms, urged the federal government to come to the aid of the affected farmers.

Ahmed, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Alhaji Yusuf Abdulwahab, said the disaster had hampered the state’s quest to showcase it’s efforts in rice production.

He noted that the fund for the rice cultivation was sought from the CBN.

He said the flooded rice farms are part of the state’s major flagship agricultural scheme with huge value addition and appealed to the federal government to expedite action on dyke reconstruction.

The chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Water Resources, Aliyu Ahman- Patigi, expressed concern over the loss and advised the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to immediately come up with plans to mitigate the effect of the flood on farmers.

He said the sum of N720 million was budgeted for the construction of dyke in this year’s budget to permanently secure the rice farms against flooding in future.

Speaking in an interview, the representative of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Elijah Aderibigbe, announced that the first phase of the dyke construction would be completed by April, 2019.

Aderibigbe who is the acting Director of Irrigation and Drainage in the ministry, said the federal government was interested in the farms and would do everything possible to get the flood protection project completed. (NAN/Daily Trust)

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