New Telegraph

Thrown into deep mourning by flood

The heavy downpour which resulted into flooding in Bauchi State, has thrown many communities in Warji local areas into mourning. New Telegraph observed that in Dagu community, more than 40 houses were destroyed, 80 houses affected and in Kamasaya village, about 30 were houses destroyed, 100 houses affected while in Yelwan Sakuwa, 60 got destroyed and more than 100 houses affected. However, in an interview with Yusuf Jibrin, of Kamasaya village in Warji LGA, lamented that, “we are in sorry state of our lives. We are in deepest sadness moment in our community, we are experiencing a flooding that came from the south and destroyed our houses and farm lands.”

Jibrin said that many houses have been destroyed while many people are affected and hundreds of houses cannot be accessed by their owners because they are soaked in the flood, adding that all their foods, clothes and other valuables are deeply soaked in the flood while some have been carted away.

He explained that, one person in their community lost his life, but as a community they are yet to quantify the wanton of property destroyed because they are under shocked and mourning The 35-year-old, said, “the flood has displaced hundreds of people, some have relocated to Warji, the LGA capital, others are taking refuge in schools while some are in their relatives houses and some are squatting with friends,” he said. “The situation in some areas has reached a stage whereby two to three women are paired in one room, same applies to both male and children.

The children are also jam-packed in one room.” He said further that they need help from government, individuals and nongovernmental organisation to build roads for them and avert reoccurring of flood in the future. Jibrin said as a community they are doing their best to ensure that they create local drainages but this time the flooding over power them hence the need for intervention from all critical stakeholders and philanthropists.

“Our children and women are suffering, we need food and clothes for them.” Also, Hauwa Abdu, a 62-year-old grand-mother, who lives in Yelwan Sakuwa Warji LGA, said that the flood destroyed 60 houses and many houses are soaked, in her community.

“One person died in our village due to the flood. The flood carted away with our cooking pots, beds, can clothes, foods and many valuables. As I am talking to you now, we don’t have food to eat in our houses neither do we a place to sleep,” The grandmother urged the state government to assist them with whatever that is available to ease their situation for now. Saying a lot of farm lands have been destroyed including maize, rice seanseme and guinea corn. “Our main problem now is hunger, we don’t have food to eat, we don’t have money to buy foods, and we don’t have where to sleep.

We want government and other people to help us with foods like maize, rice, noodles, spaghetti and money,” she said. While Yusha’u in Dagu community close to Warji complained that, they are in critical conditions of life as a result of the flood that swept away their houses and displaced them. He explained that the flood came from the southern part of the community and inflicted them with sorry, sadness and mourning, adding that all their valuables, including houses, foods items and farms are gone.

Yusha’u said, “We need help, we need what we will eat now, we need money to renovate our broken houses. These are our immediate needs.” However, when Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed led a delegation of top government officials for an inspection visit to flood affected areas in Warji LGA said that government’s plans to provide them with relief materials as well as providing engineering solutions to their environmental problems.

Governor Bala said that his administration will partner with relevant stakeholders in order to overcome environmental challenges facing various communities of the state. He said in addition to the ongoing construction of District Head Palace, his administration will provide them with other services. On his part, Commissioner, Ministry for Local Governments Affairs, Alhaji Nuhu Zaki said Governor Bala’s administration cannot be compared with any other in terms of execution of projects while assuring them of government readiness to come to their aid.

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