By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
As if the current sour effects of flood brought to bear on thousands residents of kogi state, especially Lokoja, the kogi State capital is not enough, scarcity of drinkable water has also hit the area.
Investigation by The Reporters on Saturday revealed that the scarcity, this around, is caused by the flood which affected the area where the water is being processed and pumb for public consumption.
A visit by our Correspondent to some houses within the vicinity of Gadumo new layout, one of the areas close to River Niger with many of its residents tourched by the flood, reports that the pumps were seen dry.
An officer of the State Ministry of Water Resources who spoke with the online news medium on the condition of anonymity, said,”we can only treat and pump water for public consumption when flood leaves this area”.
Some residents, such as Muhammed Aliu and Agnes Alabi among others in Gadumo, described the 2022 flood as more devasting,compared to the 2012 flood.
“In 2012 that Lokoja first witnessed this terrible natural disaster, I was one of those who accommodated some victims in my house as flood did not reach my house in Gadumo.
A resident of Lokoja caught up in the cobweb of the devastating flood along kabawa road on Friday.
“Ironically, this year, I became one of the victims water flooded flood my house, forcing me and my family to relocate for squatting with a friend somewhere at Ibaji quarters in Lokoja,”Aliu said.
Also speaking with our Correspondent in a telephone interview, the Presiding Shepherd of Sword of Fire Evangelical Ministry,Pastor Ade Bada, described the effect of this year’s flood in Lokoja as unimaginable.
The Journalist turn cleric said,” with the situation we find ourselves,the flood has added another costly agony to the pain on the ground.”
He prayed to Almighty God to show mercy on the state and its residents and cause a stop to the flood, sooner than later.
Pastor Bada pray God to see the victims through ” this trying time in such away that the effect of the flood will not be overwhelming on them and their families.”
Some of the residents who turned up at old market side of the town, to see the development, called on authorities in Cameron to stop releasing Lagdo dam water,to check flood in Nigeria,while chatting with our Correspondent.
An Enugu-based hydrologist,Dr.Emmenuel Okechukwu,who was in Lokoja on a sympathy visit to his brother, who is a victim of flood, called on federal government to revisit dredging of River Niger with a view to completing the project to check perennial flood in Nigeria.
The Reporters gathered that though the volume of water at river Niger remained brim as at the time of this report 11.28 a.m on Saturday, residents of old market said had not increased, in the last 24 hours, thus raising the hope of receding soon.
