Delta opens 10 camps as floods rage through 19 LGAs - Official

The Delta State Government has opened 10 camps to accommodate Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) affected by the flood in 19 out of the 25 local government areas (LGAs) of the state.

The Director-General, State Orientation Bureau, Eugene Uzum, said this on Friday in Asaba at a news conference on the government’s efforts to save lives and properties in the wake of the ravaging flood across the state.

He said that in addition to the 10 established IDPs camps, Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC) has built two camps in the Warri axis to augment.

According to Mr Uzum, DESOPADEC is also opening blocked drains in the area to enable water flow to mitigate the impact of floods on the communities.

He said the situation has become so pathetic and worrisome that some of the affected communities had been invaded by reptiles; snakes and crocodiles.

Mr Uzum called on the federal government, corporate organisations and charitable individuals to come to the people’s aid, by providing relief materials to ameliorate their sufferings.

He said that while the immediate interventions are to save the affected people, their families and their properties, the federal government should build new dams along the coastal areas to ensure a permanent solution to the yearly flooding.

According to Mr Uzum, the state government has opened up 10 IDP camps across the state to cater for the need of the 19 affected LGAs in the state.

“The government has also opened up distribution centres at various locations to take the relief materials from the federal government, corporate organisations and individuals to support the displaced persons.

“The people have started enrolling at the various camps and I must say that the challenge has been critical and it’s going to be more than that of 2012.”

He added that his agency was working in collaboration with the traditional rulers, political aides, and president generals of the affected communities to identify the vulnerable persons and to ensure a hitch-free process.

“As we speak, all the eight LGAs in Delta South; six LGAs in Delta North and five LGAs in Delta Central Senatorial Districts have been taken over by flood.

“We have both short and long-term solutions to this problem of yearly flooding; the current intervention to save lives and properties is one.

“The long-term solution has to do with the dredging of the River Benue and the River Niger as well as build the needed dams to take away the large volume of the water that flows across the impacted states.

“So, we are appealing to the federal government, corporate organisations and individuals to give their support to the impacted communities in the state,” Mr Uzum said.

There had not been an official record of death due to the flooding in the state, he said.