The Chairman of the Bayelsa State Emergency Management Agency, Walamam Igurubia, has disclosed that a set triplet and three sets of twin babies have been delivered at the internally displaced person camp in Oxbow Lake, in the state capital.
This is as the state’s Flood Mitigation and Management Task Force, on Sunday, commenced the distribution of relief materials to affected people in several clusters of non-designated internally displaced persons’ centres and private camps within Yenagoa and its environs.
The SEMA boss, who is a member of the flood committee, also shed more light on the distribution of food items to the clusters and private IDP camps.
Igurubia said, “In the Oxbow Lake (IDP camp), we had a set of triplets; we have three sets of twins, that’s making it three plus six, nine. Then we had two births on Friday and Saturday; so, about 11 to 12 births.
“And we got a complaint of a woman stuck in her house after giving birth and she and her baby were very sick. Luckily, we were able to evacuate them to Diete-Koki Memorial Hospital.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Task Force and Commissioner for Environment, Iselema Gbaranbiri, said the state government identified the cluster IDP centres and some private camps following an enumeration exercise.
Gbaranbiri said, “We are distributing (relief items) to clusters within the Yenagoa metropolis. There are countless informal camps, and that tells you the population in Yenagoa. We have enumerated so many of them.
“We have over time gathered relief materials, the state government has released N900m in two tranches of N450m each.
“We have procured relief materials from within and outside the state. We are still procuring. Now, most of it has been delivered to the local government areas through sub-committees. The items we are distributing include beans, garri, rice and others.”
154 roads, bridges
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, when he appeared on TVC’s programme, Journalists Hangout, monitored by our correspondent on Sunday, stated that over 154 roads and bridges had been damaged by the flood.
Fashola said, “I can confirm 154 locations where our roads and bridges have been impacted so far. In some places, the water has not receded enough to enable us to know how bad the damage is.
“However, we are with working with the Ministry of Water Resources, Humanitarian Affairs and relevant agencies to produce an action plan. We plan to submit a report to the National Assembly when we defend our budget.”
The PUNCH reports that the natural disaster has affected over 3.3 million people across 30 states – including 1,427,370 people displaced, 2,776 injured, and over 612 dead with many houses put under water.
HYPPADEC’s housing units
Meanwhile, the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission is to provide 250 housing units to those displaced by flood from riverine communities in areas covered by the commission.
This is one of the proposals contained in HYPPADEC’s Medium Term Strategic Plan 2022- 2027 presented at its stakeholders’ forum in Ilorin, Kwara State on Friday.
The commission’s Managing Director, Abubakar Yelwa, announced that the commission has received approval from its governing board to provide 250 houses to people displaced by flood from riverine communities.
Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof Mamman Jibril, called for the dredging of River Niger to put an end to the recurring flood which is wreaking havoc in riverine communities.
