In the Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, residents of Unagboke village, Inyimagu Azugwu community were on Saturday ravaged by flood which destroyed property worth millions of naira, including farm produce.

The area is a few kilometres away from the Abakaliki metropolis.

The Chairman of the village, Emmanuel Igwe, told one of our correspondents, who visited the area, that the residents had been experiencing flooding in the area for decades.

Igwe said this was worsened by the abandoned drainage project at a nearby river by the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project.

According to him, the river now overflows its banks whenever there is heavy rainfall, thereby causing flooding in the area.

Igwe, who said the community had lost a lot, including houses, crops and other valuables to the flood since the rain commenced this year, called on the government to come to their rescue.

He stated,

“We have many problems here. We have no road. We usually experience flooding that cuts us off from the larger society. On Saturday, the flood covered the entire area. We couldn’t pass. Some residents were sacked from their homes. Our houses, farms and property have been destroyed.

“We are calling on the government to help us. The flood has been here for years, but has worsened this year, because the channelization of the Ebia/Ebonyi River was abandoned midway by the NEWMAP. So, the abandonment of the project has added to our plight.”

Another resident of the area, Mrs Ego Chikezie, a widow and employee of the Nigeria Postal Service, lamented that the flooding started very early this year and had subjected the residents to untold hardship.

She stated

“Since 2018 when we packed into our house here, we have been experiencing flooding usually around September and October. But this year, it started very early due to the World Bank drainage at the Ebia River, which has been abandoned.

“Now, whenever there is rainfall, we don’t pass here. There is no going to work or the farm and our children are not be able to go to school. The primary school over there will also be closed. We have lost a lot to the flood this year and we call on the government to come to our rescue.”

Similarly, residents of Bonny Island in the Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, on Sunday, lamented heavy flooding and attacks by reptiles occasioned by torrential rainfall in their community.

The island has been hit by heavy rainfall since Wednesday amid the total lockdown imposed by the state government following the upsurge in coronavirus infection in the area.