The Commissioner for Information, Delta State, has appealed to Nigerians, not to send money but materials to assist thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) that currently displaced by the ravaging flood in the oil-rich state.
The spokesman for the Delta state government, Barrister Chike Ogeah, on our breakfast show, Sunrise, stated that “Delta state does not need money but materials to keep the IDPs.”
“If there is money you want to give us, please convert into the needed materials and send it to us.”
The state government has opened centres in Lagos, Abuja and Warri where such donations can be collected.
Describing the precarious condition of the disaster, Barrister Ogeah stated that “three storey buildings are totally submerged in the flood waters.” “Farms, burial sites, sewages, and schools have all washed away, giving room for health concerns on the aftermath of the flood.”
“With the build-up of IDPs, I ask if we are at war because the sights are similar to the era of the Biafra war which seems to re-enacting itself, just that we are not hearing gunshots.” “It seems the state is at war with nature” the agitated official stated.
He further raised the alarm that as the flood has taken over homes, people now fish in their compound and children swim in the water thinking it is the river. “But this is dangerous because fishing in such water is harmful for human consumption because everything in that water is polluted” he warned.
“There are real prospects of an outbreak of disease among displaced residents who depend on the flood water as their only source of drinking water” he added.
According to the Director of Search and Rescue with the National Emergency Service, Mr Charles Otegbade, “what we expressing is the downward movement of the accumulated water from River Niger and River Benue to Delta state” as he spoke about the flood disaster that has also affected the Niger-Delta.
An environmental activist and official of Friends of the Earth, Mr Phillip Jakor, declared that all the communities affected by flood, should be declared Disaster Zones.
Jakor further notes that a pending outbreak of cholera after the flood is imminent just as snakes and scorpions and other dangerous animals now make their ways into people’s homes.
