Solomon Simon woke up in the morning of Thursday, August 5, to a flooded house. In panic, the middle-aged man quickly moved his children out of the building before trying to salvage some of his properties.
But most – including precious livestock – were already submerged in the flood.
“Before I came back to recover the animals, the water had increased,” he said. “We just rushed out and left them there because I cannot predict what could happen.”
Simon’s was just one among many families affected by the recent flooding in Taraba State. Elvis Joseph’s was another.
“At exactly 6am, there was a heavy rainfall,” Joseph told Channels Television. “The whole place was flooded all of a sudden and there was a car parked here. Before we knew it, it was swept away.
“There is nothing we can do actually, and the destruction is enormous. It is something we never planned for, but we thank God that we still have shelter over our heads. This is the second time this is happening. Some of us are still counting our losses till now.”
Relocating To Higher Grounds
Parts of Taraba State – especially the river belt areas – are particularly prone to flooding. Residents of Jalingo – the state capital – were not left out of the tragedy.
The August 5 incident was the second time in less than one month that communities would be ravaged by high waters, with valuables worth millions of naira destroyed – buildings, farmlands, vehicles.
State authorities also confirmed the death of a teenager in the recent flooding.
According to the Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku, the flooding is caused by people who have encroached on the river valleys in the state.
The way out of the problem, for him, is to discourage people from settling in the valleys and relocate to higher grounds.
But the government, in the meantime, is making efforts to ease the effect of the flooding on the people.
“The first thing is to immediately send food supplies to all these people because most of them, their houses have been completely damaged,” said Ishaku.
“We need to support them with what to eat immediately and the second stage will be how they can reconstruct their houses, but not in the same area because they are all in the low valley of the rivers.
“Any flooding again in the future will be worse. We had this issue in 2005 and this looks a bit worse than that.”
It, however, appears that the government’s effort is being sabotaged by officials responsible to distribute palliatives to the victims.
While some didn’t get any relief, the little received by others was as good as nothing.
An Avenue To Loot?
Yohanna Obidah, whose family was also affected, said, “We did not benefit from anything. We did not even see anything, nobody came to capture anything.
“But our (community) leader said some people came to the area and captured (documented) some (residents) but we were not around. So our names are not included on the list and we did not see anything.
“My neighbour later brought groundnut oil in a pet bottle (50cl) that they distributed to people and he brought for us, but we said we do not want it.”
Beyond the sad feeling of watching their properties soaked or swept away by the powerful torrent, some residents had other problems to deal with.
“Some of our properties that we were unable to move as a result of the flood, we saw some guys from nowhere entering the water to pick them,” Joseph lamented.
“And when we attempted to claim our properties, they claimed they were their valuables swept away by the flood. Others came from behind and entered some houses to pick some valuables.”
As the question of what was responsible for the flooding continued to beg for answers, Alfred had an opinion contrary to the position of the governor who blamed it on encroachment on river valleys.
The middle-aged man believes the erection of buildings on water channels contributes largely to the situation the people have found themselves in.
He advised the authorities not to add to the problem but embark on a campaign to discourage the people from obstructing the free flow of water by building structures on drainage channels.
“Our government is not helping matters; they need to sensitise people,” said Alfred. “They need to organise even if it is a seminar to create awareness and educate people not to settle here (on water channels).
“If we knew this would happen, we would not have settled here and I pray that Taraba State government and Nigerian Government will come to our aid.”
