Blessing Okorite, Port Harcourt
A Port Harcourt-based humanitarian service group, Rivers of Hope and Humanitarian Initiative, ROHI, has distributed relief materials to victims of the 2018 flood in Akwa Ibom State.
The group, in collaboration with the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, also organised a flood preventive sensitisation programme for communities in three local government areas in the state.
The communities that benefited from the relief materials and emergency response to flood include Afaha Uqua in Eket, Udung Etta in Oroko and Upenekang in Ibeno.
Speaking after the sensitisation programme in Eket, Coordinator of ROHI, Mrs. Josephine Emmanuel, said the organisation and other NGOs in collaboration with NDDC had the intervention programme in flood affected areas across the Niger Delta region.
Mrs. Emmanuel disclosed that ROHI was responsible for distribution of foods and relief materials to the three communities in the state.
She further disclosed that the group had earlier had community dialogue meetings and inspections of affected sites in the local governments before they came for the sensitisation programme and distribution of the relief materials.
At Afaha Uqua, the paramount ruler of the community, Chief Okon Nsien Nsien, expressed happiness for the visit of the group to the community, saying that the intervention would relieve affected persons of mental stress.
He disclosed that their major challenge was the damage of their structures by flood, expressing hope for development and reconstruction of the damaged infrastructures.
Also, he thanked NDDC and the NGO for remembering the affected persons.
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Another community leader in the area, who spoke with The Nigerian Xpress, Chief Obong Inieke Akpensin, said over 57 houses were affected in Afaha Uqua in the 2018 flood.
He urged NDDC to construct a solid drainage that will take floodwater to nearby canal to prevent future occurrences of such disasters in the area.
Chief Obong said, “This is goodwill towards the victims of last year’s flood incident in the area. We really appreciate the gesture by ROHI, though the main problem is to give the water its way.
“The relief materials can alleviate minor issues, like those that have lost their properties to the flood.
“The major and most sustainable assistant would have been to give water its way so that those people that suffered last year will not suffer again.
“Over 57 houses were affected in this area, including churches and business premises. It is always very rough when it is raining here. So, we need a lasting solution to this menace.”
Beneficiaries expressed happiness over the intervention and thanked ROHI for coming all the away from Rivers State to relieve them of their problems.
Highlight of the programme was distribution of bags of rice, salt, groundnut oil, detergent, tomatoes, blankets, 50 buckets, Tissue papers and mattresses.