Our Farmlands, Shops Gone – Flood-Threatened Enugu Community Cries For Help
The people of Amagu village in Imilike, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State, have cried to concerned authorities for rescue from flooding, which has forced some of them out of their ancestral homes.
They blamed the company that constructed the Udenu Ring Road during the regime of former Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, as well as the blockade of the waterway leading to the soakaway that hitherto harvested floods from a federal road that traverses the area, as the major causes.
A stakeholder of the village, Mr Christopher Eze, told THE WHISTLER on Friday that rainy seasons had been their nightmare because of the devastation of flooding in the village.
According to him, “Apart from the waterways channelled to us during the construction of the ring road, which have been threatening us for over five years, the soakaway that was storing floods coming from the Enugu-Makurdi express road was blocked by the management of the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences, SUMAS, located opposite us. They built their fence across the waterway leading to the soakaway, located inside the university. So we are faced with two flooding prongs, all with heavy forces.”
He said members of the village had been engaging in self-help to ameliorate the situation to no avail.
“We barricade entrances to our compounds, but that does not help matters. The first rain of this season came on Wednesday, and as you can see, the damage is already much. You can imagine how it would be when the rainy season begins properly.”
Hillary Ugwuanyi is a native of the village. He said, “The medical university is the cause of the flooding from the federal highway side. It is so terrible that at least ten families have abandoned their homes for safety. Many houses have also collapsed. Our farmlands are gone because floods wash them away. Farming here is a waste.”
Nkechi Okpe is from the village. She said, “You can see shops that have been abandoned. Our problem is that our topography is flat. Once the flood gets here, it remains and spreads to various households. One could be sleeping and be woken up by a flooded bedroom.
“Anybody who is still living here does not have anywhere to run to. We want the government to help us.”
Okpe said the solution was to construct a retention pit where floods would be channelled for storage, adding that their cries had not received any attention from the government.
The Vice Chancellor of SUMAS, Prof Chukwuma Ugbonna, did not respond to enquiries on the blocked waterways forwarded to him.
Our Farmlands, Shops Gone – Flood-Threatened Enugu Community Cries For Help is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
