The Anambra State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has kicked off assessment of communities affected by flood disasters in the state to ascertain water levels.

The assessment which was carried out at Ogbaru, Anambra East and Anambra West Local Government Area of the state, was geared towards helping SEMA present a detailed situation report to the state government.

Giving insight to the programme, the Executive Director of SEMA, Mr. Captain Agupugo, represented by the Executive Assistant to the state on SEMA, Mr Emeka Obinez, said that with the rising water level, more victims had been moved to holding centres.

He regretted that the rising water has driven many people out of their homes to holding centers.

His words: “This is what we saw at Atani and some of the victims go about their daily activities and retire to the centres.

“The rising level of water witnessed in recent have orchestrated a surge in the number of victims.”

Agupugo said the flood victims need assistance especially food items as they had already exhausted the ones distributed to them about three weeks ago.

He explained that most of the areas visited which include, farmlands, churches, houses and schools been completely submerged.

He added: “School children have been displaced and in some upland areas, children from different schools are merged and taught together.

“It is a sad, sad story, the situation is really treacherous and devastating because most of this people now do their daily activities on water.”

He gave assurance to the victims of government readiness to work with relevant authorities to bring about the desired assistance to them.

Chairman of 2019 Flood Relief Committee in Ogbaru LGA, Nnamdi Esimai, hailed the state government for providing the relief materials that were distributed to the victims through SEMA three weeks ago.

He observed that more victims were coming to the bolding center due to increasing water levels.

Esimai said: “To my surprise, rather than the eater to recede, it is increasing. So, with the number of victims, they have increased to more than the original number in the camps.”

He called on the state government to provide more relief materials especially food saying that people are hungry.

One of the flood victims, Mrs. Ebele Nwachukwu, pleaded appealed to the State Government to provide them with more food items lamenting that their children were dying of hunger and starvation.

“Our children no longer go to school because a child here in the holding center was almost carried away by flood waters on his way from school,” she stated.

Another victim of the flood menace, Sunday Ogulo, regretted that the water level is yet to recede because of the level of rainfall this year.

He added: “This year’s flooding has become more unbearable because unlike other years, the flood water would have started receding.”

Nwachukwu hailed Governor Obiano and chairman of Ogbaru LGA for their efforts at ensuring that affected victims were provided with accommodation.

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