Save us O Lord…Some residents trying to swim to safety after being caught in the flood
The state could not be accessed from the neighboring Rivers and Delta
states. In fact, only Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Cross Rivers states were
left together on the third side of the divide.
From Evwreni in
Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, where Sunday
Vanguard saw the first “Jordan River” created on the East-West Road to
Rivers State, hundreds of vehicles that were trapped by flood, were seen
either packed or submerged.
Of course, there is no more
transportation by road, as vehicles going from Edo or Delta to Bayelsa,
Rivers and other parts of the South-South have to pass through three
other states of the South-East region, namely Anambra, Abia and Imo to
get to their destinations.
Nobody knows when the flood, which
is still flowing on the road would recede, but it is obvious that a
lasting destruction has been left on the road. From what we saw, even
if a miracle happens and the flood dries up next month, no vehicle can
immediately pass on it.
Given the several years the Federal
Government has been trying to repair the East-West Road without success,
you can imagine how many decades it will now take to landfill the
emergency rivers that have come up.
Jordan River on East-West Road
Sunday Vanguard crossed the “River Jordan” created on the East-West
Road at Evwreni community by flood on foot with our crew pulling off
their shoes, socks and rolling up their trousers above knee level; and
with their reporter’s notebook, biro and other writing materials placed
above their heads, as if in surrender to the gods of nature, the crew
marched with other frustrated citizens to the other side of the road.
One could feel the shove of the flood on one’s legs as one walked past
the river. However, having refused the teenagers, who demanded N100 fee
for an executive canoe ride the pleasure they wanted at the first point
of intrusion on the abandoned road, I swore not to give the enemy a
foothold by not missing my step in the crossover.
The entire
crew succeeded in crossing the Jordan River notwithstanding the weapons
that were fashioned against them. Nevertheless, that was only the
beginning, as there was no vehicle to continue the journey. Of course,
the car that we used for the trip, which later had a gear problem, broke
down on the return trip, was parked at the last bus stop, near the new
Evwreni River, along the East-West road.
Throughout, the
journey, I kept muttering prayers to God that the flood should not
increase and sweep away the car where it was parked. Nothing happened to
it, except that it did not take us back to Warri, where we started the
journey.
We climbed on motorcycles after crossing to a point at
Ohoror community on the East-West Road, also in Ughelli North Local
Government Area, where we could take a boat to Aven in Patani local
government, perhaps, the most affected area in the state.
Two hours in hand-pulled canoe
The crew had the misfortune of making the journey in a hand-pulled
canoe. We waded through farmlands, cassava and plantain plantations in
the bush that were swamped by flood. The journey took nearly two hours.
However, there were people who took advantage of the apologetic
situation to exploit fellow human beings. Both the boat drivers and
motorcyclists have formed different unions to regulate fees payable by
passengers. From Evwreni to Ohoror, we paid N1,500 each for Okada ride
and N500 for the nerve-racking canoe ride.
For places where
monkey bridges were constructed by some youths to cross a river on the
road, the charge is N100 per person. Some of them were smoking Indian
hemp and clutching woods and cutlasses. They asked you to drop your
money or you go back from where you are coming.
Crossing the Red Sea
While there was commerce at the Evwreni end, the situation at Ohoror
was as if the people were waiting for the road to collapse to open new
companies on the East-West Road. From those selling roasted plantain,
meat, biscuits, hot drinks to sachet water, it was as if they do not
even want water to stop flowing on the road.
The scene at
Ohoror as I looked back at people was like the children of Israel in the
Bible crossing the Red Sea. Men, women and children carrying loads on
their heads and some mothers had their babies strapped to their backs,
while others dragged their children by the hand. From Ohoror, we again
climbed on motorcycle at N200 each to Aven community in Patani local
government area and crossed the Aven river with leg before
motor-cyclists took us to the LG headquarters.
There was no way
one could access Umeh community, an agrarian town that the Delta State
governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, is trying to open up with a new road,
as the portion of it on the East-West road was impassable. As we went
past on boat and saw many trailers, including the commuter buses of a
popular private transport company in Delta State, stranded.
Setraco run to fight another day
The first thing you would notice in Patani is a relief centre for more
than 3,000 flood victims, set up by anongovernmental organization, Rural
Africa Health Initiative, RAHI, coordinated by former national
president of Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Dr. Chris Ekiyor, who,
incidentally, is from the community. His house is among those under
water in Patani. The community is completely submerged and you cannot
cross from the boundary town in Delta State to Bayelsa except by boat.
From the Rivers axis, you cannot also enter Bayelsa except by boat, as
the East-West road was over flooded between Mbiama and Ahoada.
Initially, Setraco Construction Company tried to carry out emergency
response from the Port-Harcourt end by filling the rivers that had
emerged on the road with hardcore, but it was soon overwhelmed and left
it temporarily for the flood to subside.
Commuters traveling
from Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, to cities within and outside
the state resorted to Mercedes Benz 911 trucks, popularly known as
tipper lorries, as their means of transportation at that time, but when
the road was completely cut-off, such bigger vehicles became endangered
species also.
The worst hit of the flooded areas on the
East-West road in Rivers State is Ahoada junction on the
Yenagoa-Port-Harcourt road, which is submerged.
RAHI rescues flood victims, stranded travelers
Dr. Ekiyor told Sunday Vanguard that most donors could not bring relief
materials to the victims in the RAHI flood camp because of the awful
road.
According to him, “Some travelers on the East-West, who
were stranded as a result of the flood, stopped by to pass the night at
the brimful RAHI flood victims’ relief camp, which is lit at night,
courtesy of a standby generating sets provided by the NGO.
The
relief camp is at present the only place thousands of people in Patani
and neighbouring communities in Bayelsa State can access medical care,
as they have been cut-off from others parts of Delta and Bayelsa State
by flood.
Mrs. Florence Appah, affected by the flood disaster,
said she was escaping to Benin for medical attention when she was
trapped by flood, adding, “For the past 16 days, I have been in the RAHI
flood camp and receiving medical attention and food”.
Sunday
Vanguard discovered that the general hospital in Patani is also
submerged and if not for the dexterity of the mortuary attendants, who
had to stack corpses on the roof of the building, they would have been
washed away by flood into the same river, which some people are drinking
and cooking with.
Ekiyor, who admitted that flood has
practically crippled inter-state economic activities in the region,
however, said government should send relief materials to flood victims
through the waterways.
A source, however, said government
officials were afraid to come to Patani because of the fear of sea
pirates, but Ekiyor told Sunday Vanguard, “How can they say that they
cannot come because of sea pirates when they have the police and
soldiers of the Joint Task Force, JTF, on the Niger-Delta, codenamed,
Operation Pulio Shield to escort them”.
He said RAHI was just a
nongovernmental organization, which intervened as a stop-gap measure to
assist government in providing care for the victims, but government
agencies, particularly, the National Emergency Relief Agency, were
taking so long in coming to the aid of the internally displaced persons
in Patani.
As at time of this report, he was expecting the
Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who celebrated his 58th
birthday with flood victims, last week, in other parts of the state, to
show up at the RAHI camp, which is clearly the best organized flood camp
in the state.
FG should commence repairs
Ekiyor urged
the Federal Government to forget about the trans-coastal road from
Akwa-Ibom to Lagos and concentrate on making the East-West Road an
eight-lane road, as had been done in the United States and other parts
of the world.
“I don’t even know what the government is waiting
for to commence work. Communication is also difficult now among the six
South-South states. People build bridges over water, if RAHI did not
come here at the time we rushed in, over 100 deaths would have happened
in the communities around here just because there is road to get out
this place for medical attention”, he said
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