Flood 2023: Bayelsa Residents Call On Government to Clear Canals/ Drainages.

 

 Bayelsa Residents especially those affected by the last year's flood have called on the state government to clear the drainage systems and canals in around the Yenagoa metropolis as this year's flood approaches in few months’ time.

Some residents around the cemetery road in Azikoro village in Yenagoa who spoke on Wednesday to members of the federated correspondents’ chapel of Nigeria union of journalists went round to see the level of preparedness of government ahead of the incoming flood, they called on the relevant agencies in charge to clean up the canals that empty water into Azikoro village from the cemetery area of the state.

The team went to Okutukutu area, Airforce road, Azikoro Village and Cemetery road.

One of the residents of the cemetery area who gave his name as Lemmy Royal Egede said that the government will not do anything even if they shout from now till tomorrow urging the government to come and clear the drainages and provide some palliatives to the people. 

 Egede said “We suffered.  Last year’s flood really affected us so much here and up till now we didn’t see even one cup of Garri especially this area we don’t have a major road so they didn’t come here with any palliative. 

“We were really impacted but there was no government presence. There was a time that three corpses floated out from the cemetery.

 Another that gave her name simply as Mama Blessing disclosed that she was the person that carried one of the corpses back to cemetery when it floated out during the flood.

 She said “I was the person that carried the dead body back to the cemetery but government didn’t give us anything. I was swimming through this street to pack my things. 

“I didn’t see anything from the government. They took the foodstuffs to another street and then when we went there, they even beat us.

 Recall that Bayelsans in and around the cemetery during the flood  last year experienced dead bodies floating out from the cemetery which caused untold hardship then coupled with the flood that they were battling with.

More than 80% of Yenagoa residents were of course affected by last year’s flood including the rich and the poor.

 In the time past especially during the restoration government, all the canals in the metropolis were always cleared annually before the setting in of flood which makes it minimal although it is a perennial occurrence.

 But since the current administration especially last year, most of the drainages were not cleared before the flood only for some excavators to be seen around some canals like  the one they dropped around the air force road of Okaka which was eventually vandalized.

When this report sought to know from the recently inaugurated committee called directorate on flood and erosion control, a member of the committee said that the committee has not started work because there was no mobilization yet.