Anam People, Others Facing Worst Flooding Experience in History – Ilegbunam

By Olisemeka Sony

High Chief Boniface Ilegbunam, a popular marine officer who coordinates water transportation across Anambra East and West Local Government areas of Anambra state has told Anambra Daily that displaced people from the riverine communities, especially Anam and Igala-speaking communities in the state were facing their worst flooding experience in history.

Ilegunam, a member of the royal tradition council of Umuoba Anam, Oba-Agu ancient kingdom, told this paper, after an assessment tour of some flood-affected communities in the area that the 2022 flooding crisis had dealt a big blow to the economic backbone of the state and Nigeria in general.
Hear him: “I can tell you, sincerely that Anam people and their neighbouring communities in both Anambra East and West Local Government areas of Anambra state are facing their worst flooding experience in history. Since I was born, I have never witnessed this kind of flooding calamity.

There is virtually no upland in the entire Anam communities and other parts of the Anambra West local government area; the entire area has been submerged by flood.
“And the condition of those people displaced by the flood is very bad because everything they owned, their property, crops, especially yams, cassava, potatoes, vegetables and livestocks have been submerged by flood water.

“Apart from the fact that their crops and properties perished in the flood, they also faced a bigger problem of collapsing buildings. The foundation of most buildings now submerged by flood water was not designed to withstand this kind of high-level flood situation and most of them are already crumbling. Many more could collapse in future.

Bony Anu-Enyi, as he is fondly called, also disclosed that the flood crisis has brought untold hardships and hunger in the affected areas and the entire country. “The whole arable lands where the bulk of the food crops are being produced had been flooded and the crops damaged. So, it is most likely that we will experience severe hardship in the following months, if not years.

On the way forward, Ilegbunam sent a passionate appeal to the federal, state and local governments and private individuals and organizations to come to the aid of victims of this flood disaster. “Our people really need help to survive this crisis. Government alone cannot help them. This is the only way we can save many lives. As far as damage is concerned, this flood has caused irreparable damage to my people and it will take years to recover.
“I doubt if most affected people will completely recover from this crisis.

I am saying this because I am a major witness to this crisis having visited most of the affected places, interacted with the victims or help evacuate them”, he stressed.
The marine official also appealed to travellers and transporters on the rivers to be on high safety alert to avoid unnecessary loss of lives due to tides and waves.

“It’s our candid advice that no single person should travel on a canoe or boat at this point in time because of a mishap. It’s important to travel in the company of at least one or two persons so that whenever there is a mishap, one person can easily raise alarm or rescue the other. When such an incident happens with a lone traveller, it’s very hard for the person to easily survive.

He also urged commercial speed boat and wooden boat operators to adopt high safety precautions in their rescue operations by avoiding overloading their boats. “With a high volume of persons and goods needing to be evacuated, there is a temptation to fill the boats to capacity.

That could be too dangerous when waves or tides hit the travellers. So, we are of the view that no boat should be overloaded to ensure that travellers reach their destinations, even if it requires making several rounds to get them to safety.