Anambra: Obiano Unleashes Flooding Plan For Riverine Areas

“no fewer than 74 local government areas in 30 states in Nigeria would experience severe flooding in September”.

Governor Willie Obiano has begun to put flooding measures in place around the riverine areas of the state, this is in response to the warning by the Director-General of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) on an imminent flood in the state.

The Governor on August 29, toured the riverine areas of Onitsha, Ogbaru, and Omambala to sensitize the people of an impending flood.

The warning by the agency, NIHASA was not peculiar to Anambra state as the flooding is expected to affect about 30 states in the country.

According to reports, “no fewer than 74 local government areas in 30 states in Nigeria would experience severe flooding in September”. The paper equally reported NIHSA as urging governments to pull down structures built on flood plains while expressing disappointment that previous warnings were not heeded.

So far only Anambra state out of the 30 states has responded to the warning and mobilized to sites. The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has been fully activated and kept on the ready. Items of need for such emergencies like drugs, tents, blankets, buckets, mosquito nets etc have also been procured and would be made available to those who heed the warning. Medical doctors, nurses and other health professionals are ready to be mobilized to any areas flooded.

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This is not the first time the Obiano administration is taking measures to stave off looming disaster in the state. Taking proactive measure is consistent with his administration’s policy of averting potentially dangerous situations. But it is taking a boat ride in a torrent of troubled waters to these areas of flood plain – which on a good day are not accessible – that was too risky. It was a tad too selfless and bespeaks of leadership by example. Any governor not as committed to the welfare of the citizens would jolly well assign the task to another. But Obiano has shown on occasion that he is empathic and feels the vicarious pains of those he leads.

It will be recalled that last year, the governor visited Ogbaru local government with naval officers due to the flooding disaster in the area.

To appreciate the governor’s concern and his effort to stem the impending flooding, a critical appraisal of the flood disaster of 2012 in the state is useful. Though the year’s flooding was a national disaster, Anambra was identified as one of the most affected states because a good number of its communities are by the River Nigeria and its several tributaries. Persons were displaced – even drowned, buildings were submerged as farmlands and livestock were washed away.

In fact, the level of damage was such that most of the coastal areas of Onitsha, Ogbaru, and Omambala were left desolate. Out of the 21 local governments in the state, about eight were affected. Records showed that houses, as well as public properties worth billions of naira, were fully or partly destroyed. There were interventions by the government, international donor agencies, non-governmental organizations as well as public-spirited individuals through relief materials.

It is to avoid a repeat that Governor Obiano has chosen, once again, to make hay while the sun shines. When both the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Hydrological Services Agency announced early last year of an impending major flood in many states because of the unusually heavy rains, Obiano became the first to mobilize his people about the looming disaster.

Residents and businesses within the flood plain need to heed the governor’s advice to leave places which are below the sea level until the floods come and go. They must assist the state government to reduce nature’s rage against man. It is expected that governments of states with a similar problem will take adequate measures.