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Rivers State
Rood disaster 'forces farmers into premature harvest eFamilies postpone burials of loved ones
would olhcially get to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA to come to theu aid . However, the South South zonal Coordinator of NEMA. Mr Emenike Umesi said they had been aware of Lhe flood situation in the affected communilles in the local government and had been working on the af1ected areas. He also listed Ndoni m Ogba Egbema Ndoru local government area as other areas afIected. He said they had concluded assessment of the aUected communities to determine the level of asslStance tbat could be given to the victims r-r'he NEMA Coordinator, 1 Mr Umest saJd in Ndoni his agency identified a camp for victuns but It was swept off by Dood He said they had already alerted the local govemmf"111 authonty of the inodent Accordtnu to rum, the loc-al governmenl would now gt'·e 11,e'Dl anolh'!r spacl" to set up a ICSIt camp lor lh~ dim!\" In du"ar', r 101 ,r' 'f'WloIiJ'1 he\·4'lQU,ltl "11"11) Jhml
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d ay M t £'ellx Felix who In'es tn Okobe commumty sald th~ Oood had started DOWlng mlo some farm lands In Okobe community, adding thai some parts of the local government seetetanal at Ak.J.ru-
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,oltl ,t'l ~h 1t- Ii'! 'II e 'on, II c a u' I" "oden OJI "'" I'" ( pm 'I itt ..... ccould ,I'll m:;rpcf 'ill it ... in onlp nf thl!" Oil orod 'cing coml!1l1mllt"s n AhortrJa \'Ioesl local QO"ern· menl areil because· uf Ih~ flood problem The Riven State CornID.lSsioner for Envi ronment, Dr. Nyema Well who was on the entourage was rattled by the problem He saId the :J
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by Oood He satd if the llltuatioD continued for another few days, the local government secre· lariat would be completeJy submerged by Oood.
Most of the Vlctims opined the problem was caused by Orasm River in the alea that overflowed its bank.. Faallles POftPODefllDe,nI phuu
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of hpu IO'ied ones "There is 10 way we can do bundl un,ler tlu~ conditlon~ S;)me famliies who spoke undercover sald graves can1I0t be dug In a pool of water. In additIOn. they said strangen would not want to come to Lhe area in the (lood for burial programme. So they bad to reschedule every bunal a rrangement to December. January. hoping that normalcywould have returned to Lhe, community Lhen.
SENATE COMM ITTEE ON ENV IRONM ENT AND ECOLOGY VISITS COM-
MUNmES The Senate Committee on
state government was not
aware there was flood challenge in the area. He bowever assured th at urgent steps would be taken to mitigate the plights of VlCtims of the nood . Earlier. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Envi· ronment and Eco}ogy, Senator Bukola Sarald said be was deeply touched by the plights of victims of the Oood. stressing that his committee
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out to ti3ke care of OwnN'i of farms affected by Dood disasler He said the focus at the moment was making proVISIOns for only physically dis placed persons -rhere is need to go beyond thiS to also compensate owners of farm lands taken over by Oood".The Soutb South Coordinator also urged local governments to set up local government emergency management cOmmittee, adding that such proactive measures would help a lol in addressing challenges posed by natural disasters.