Victims ravaged by floods in six local government areas of Rivers State have received the last batch of relief materials. The materials from the state’s flood management task force include food items, foams, clothes and other items. According to the chairman of the task force, Dr. George Nweke, cassava stems were first shared in some communities for farm purposes.
Addressing journalists at the Rivers State central medical stores in Port Harcourt, Nweke said the chairmen of the six LGAs brought trucks to take food items like beans, rice, and oil from the task force’s three warehouses.
“The committee proposes that after what we are doing here today, to still go to the communities with something like seedlings,” he sadi. “Already, we have delivered the first batch of cassava stems. Like in Ahoada East where we intend to give it to farmers. We are still going later to give them corn”.
The task force’s secretary, Inime Aguma, noted that the next phase would include the distribution of seedlings and farm tools.
“Like you know, we have been distributing items to flood victims in the last four or five months. Then we had a break for the reason of Christmas. We wanted to be intentional in our distribution of things.
Now we are taking mattresses, pillows, mats and other household things to them. We are going to meet them at their villages now,” Aguma said. “I have been opportune to go to some of these villages and I know that they really need these things. If we had sent it at Christmas, we would have had a mixed crowd and perhaps it won’t get to the people that actually live in the village. We are also sending farming implements, seedlings. It will be the next phase because we must create sustainability. We don’t pray for flood to come again. But we pray that they will be able to recover what they have expended, whatever they have lost”.
She added that the task force would address issues like drinking water and early warning signs of flooding.
“We are going to carry on with medical care and also environmental issues. There is water pollution, there is the issue of drinking water in these localities. And also teaching them what they call early warning signals; knowing when to vacate a place and not waiting until when we have emergencies”.
Chairman of Ahoada West thanked the government for the items and assured that the relief materials would be distributed accordingly.
“Sincerely, the people are suffering,” he said. “This is the time that the suffering is most because they have come back home and there is nothing to live on. They have not made any money throughout that period. When I told some people I was coming to Port Harcourt to pick up the stuff, they were quite amazed. I can assure you: in Ahoada West, nobody except you come from the pit of hell will tell you that these things don’t get to the people. We are not doing it according to party lines”.