Flooding ; NEWSAN calls for adequate toiletries in IDP camps.
A Non Governmental Organisation, Network of Environmental Waste and Sanitation Association of Nigeria, NEWSAN, has called for the provision of toilets facilities so as to prevent open defection at the Internally Displaced Persons camps across flood affected states.
The Coordinator of Newsan , Pastor Roseline Omowunmi Alabi made the appeal on Friday in Lokoja while on a monitoring and assessment tour of some flooded areas in Lokoja metropolis .
In a chat with Journalists after the tour which consisted, the members of State Water Management Board , Ruwasa and State Emergency management Response Agency, Pastor Alabi urged President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration,and Governor Yahaya Bello to ensure that adequate toiletries are provided at every IDP camp to promote safe hygiene among the people living in the camps.
Pastor Alabi who lamented at the flood which has wrecked wanton destruction to properties and rendered thousands of residents homeless, said leaving the victims without adequate sanitary facilities at the camps is an invitation to outbreak of cholera and other water borne diseases.
She said, her Organisation which is partnering with Ruwasa, an agency of the state government to provide safe environment and sanitation for the citizenry to prevent outbreak of cholera and other water borne diseases across the state.
She said the tour of the affected areas and camps is to have first hand information on the availability of sanitary facilities at the camps.
She suggested that the government should look beyond dishing out relief materials to affected families, but to consciously engaging resources to permanently solve the flooding.
While sympathising with the families affected by the flood across the states , hinted that her organisation is working in synergy with relevant agencies to providing succour to the victims.
Pastor Alabi who explained that the assessment visit took her and her team to Marine Area, Adankolo Housing Estate, and Ganaja Village, all in Lokoja ,saying all hands must be on deck to reduce humanitarian crisis arising from the flooding .
She called on the state Governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello, and other relevant agencies to come to the aid of the victims by providing functional camps that is equipped with necessary infrastructures.
In the same vein, a member of the coalition, Mr. Reuben Joshua who described the flood as imaginable disaster on the people,
Lamenting her ordeal in the hand of the flood, Egwim LilianOguzu, amidst sobbing, said all her labours over the years have been lost to the flood.
” I left my house this morning with the aim to return home in peace as the flood was far from my house. Unfortunately, when i returned in the evening, my house was completely submerged. I could not enter my house to pick up anything, the only thing i have now is the cloth i put on when i left home. It is devastating and hallowing for me and my family. Where will i start from” she quipped.
In similar songs of despair, a 12 year old motor mechanic apprentice, Success Bulus, said , vehicles parked in their workshop undergoing repairs have been swallowed by the rampaging flood.
Bulus, who noted that the flooding has brought untold hardship on him and his master as the flood has not only rendered them homeless but helpless as their source of livelihood has been snatched by the flood.
He called on the Government at all levels to come to the aid of the victims with relief materials and other resources that will cushion the effect of the flood.
Meanwhile, a staff of Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority NIWA, Lawal Haruna, who was at the Ganaja Village flooded Road to provide safety materials for the boat operators, said their intervention has helped in preventing mishaps.
He called on the boat operators to stick to the Authority’s safety guidelines to ensure that there would be no casualties through out this period.
