Maduako Igbokwe l Wednesday, November 16, 2022
ONITSHA, Anambra,Nigeria – As the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA and the State Emergency Management Agency SEMA Commenced the distribution of relief materials to flood victims in Anambra state, Umuzu community where 200 families were displaced to the flood in Ogbaru local government are missing on the list of beneficiaries.
A total of 61,070 persons were displaced and were not captured in the said list.
According to the list made available by the two bodies only seven local government areas were shortlisted out of the eight council areas and Umuzu community was not in the list.
Recall that Umuzu community was one of the worse affected areas during the flood and over two hundred families in the community were missing for about a month as a result of the flood.
Coordinator Umuzu Flood Committee and Coordinator Children of Farmers Club Prince Chris Okwuosa said they have made representations to the state government and the relevant agencies involved and even during the flood.
He said during the flooding , no medical team visited Umuzu as was promised by the Commissioner for Health as well as the Chairman Ogbaru local government area.
“This is a community that had over two hundred families missing and exposed to cholera epidemic and the authorities did not find it proper to include Umuzu”he said.
According to a letter to the Deputy Governor of Anambra state Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, the community demanded for items which include:
“Provision of fishing gear and other tools to victim households Creating a value chain that will off take harvested fish from them for further processing. Appointment of coordinators to oversee these activities in the affected Communities and council areas”.
“The Children of Farmers Club with her wide range of experience in coordination of various agricultural related empowerment activities in rural communities as well as having facilities for fish processing is best suited to coordinate these activities across the state”
He said the governor may wish to approve the provision of the following for distribution to Two Thousand Households in the flood affected communities.
“1,000 roll/bundles of fishing. One operational vehicle for distribution across affected communities as well as logistics for distribution and funds as take-off grant to CFC as for off take activities” he said.
