Reports says hundreds of people in Gwadabawa Local Government Area of Sokoto State in Nigeria’s North West region have been rendered homeless by flood after a heavy downpour.
About 150 houses in several villages are said to have been hit by flood, including the headquarters of Gwadabawa Local Council, but authorities say no life was lost in the disaster.
Some of the residents in the areas affected by the flood say their storage for farm produce were also destroyed. They lament how flood waters washed their harvested crops away.
The National Emergency Agency (NEMA) said there have been heavy rains in Sokoto and Yobe States since the early hours of Wednesday, August 5.
Meanwhile, authorities are said to be making efforts at providing relief materials for victims of the disaster as some of them are left to squat with relatives and friends pending when help would come for them.
Similarly in Kaduna State, also in Nigeria’s north -west region, residents of Kaduna metropolis on Wednesday morning, witnessed an unusual heavy downpour that lasted for over seven hours.
The rainfall also caused massive floods in some parts of the city.
Channels Television’s correspondent in Kaduna State, Chimezie Enyiocha, reports that the rainfall, which started as early as six O’clock in the morning and lasted till One O’Clock in the afternoon, flooded Abubakar Kigo Road New Extension, with over 30 houses submerged.
Some of the affected residents attributed the flood to lack of adequate drainage system, but, however, blamed the State government for their woes.
The area is very close to the popular Kaduna River. It also has a swampy topography, which makes it very easy for water to penetrate people’s houses whenever there is a heavy downpour.
Although NEMA had advised residents in flood-prone areas, particularly in Abubakar Kigo Road New Extension, Gonin-Gora, Karatudu, Ungwar Rimi and Tudun Wada areas, to relocate before the rains started. The residents have refused to move out due to claims of inability to secure an alternative home without cash back up.
Some residents, whose houses were submerged by flood, have started moving out their property to safer places and it is not certain when they will return.
At a stakeholder’s sensitisation workshop on flood mitigation on Wednesday, August 5, the North West Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Musa Illalah, warned of likely water surplus and increase in stream flows that may consequently affect dam storage.
The NEMA Coordinator, who was represented by an official in the agency, Mrs Amina Ibrahim, also warned residents on the negative impact of poor liquid and solid waste management system during the rainy season.
Kaduna is one of the states in Nigeria that were affected by the 2013 flood disaster, with over 500 houses and property worth millions of Naira destroyed during the incident.
