By Sam Jones, Yenagoa
BAYELSA (SUNDIATA POST)- As the 2024 annual flood approaches, a non governmental organisation, Safe and Better Nigeria (SBN), has called on state governors to start making preparations to cushion the effect of the flood in case it turns out disastrous.
SBN, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Solomon Charles Ikpaka, called on governors of states through which the River Niger flows to take the advice seriously in order to guarantee the safety of the lives of their people during the flooding.
Solomon, who said many families are yet to recover from the loss they suffered during the 2012, 2020 and 2022 floods, urged governors to work hand in hand with their local government councils and the leaders of the various communities and settlements to identify areas most suitable for shelters.
He said such a move has become necessary so that they do not resort to living on the road or in canoes like in previous years.
The group also urged the Federal Government to work with the state governments to put out modalities to checkmate the spread of deadly diseases and also prepare medical items for the citizens, especially those living in remote and rural places.
Solomon stressed it is about time the Federal Government took the issue of building dams seriously, so that the hardship caused by the flood does not become a yearly occurrence.
The statement read in part: “We all know that the flood comes with hardship and inflation, especially on the part of farmers who suffer heavy losses whenever the water overruns their farms, and the little they are able to harvest are sold at high prices, and that’s why we have been crying, begging the Federal Government, the state governors and the National Assembly to come up with a legal framework that makes the building of dams and the dredging of the River Niger mandatory.
“The siltation is making the river unable to absorb or contain as much water as it should, and that is why farmlands and residential areas in the country are always flooded whenever the flood comes.
“Also, government should start the process of sand filling flood-prone communities so that people don’t go sleeping on top of trees or in canoes and the road when there’s flooding.
“Past experiences should have taught us enough lessons, but our government doesn’t seem to ever learn from the situation – whereby people die of diseases, snakebites and hunger.
“Even when the Federal Government makes relief available, those who are adversely affected by the flood hardly get those items, and in the end, the food is wasted or sent to politicians who already have more than enough”.