NiMET has warned that victims of flooding in Plateau should relocate to higher grounds as rains may persist in NovembeR. Already, seven Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Plateau State have been ravaged by floods. They are Quanpan, Wase Kanam, Langtang North/Langtang South, Pankshin and some parts of Jos North LGA .
No fewer than six people, including a couple, have been confirmed dead at the flood at Nyelleng, Gwabi and Tudun Osi communities of Pankshin and Jos North Local Government Area. A pastor, his wife and four others died in the floodwaters, which resulted from heavy rain in the area.
In Kanam LGA over 850 houses have been destroyed after a flood disaster swept through eight federal wards in the area. An official from the Information and Protocol Unit of the Council Area, Mohammed Yusuf, confirmed the development to newsmen in Jos after a tour of the affected communities.
Yusuf said the flood also rendered several residents homeless, while many farmlands were washed away. According to him, the federal wards mostly affected included Garga, Dengi, Jarmai, Gagdi, Kantana, Jom, Kunkyan and Mumbutbo. Similarly, Thirteen rural communities in Langtang South LGAs were also ravaged by floods. Over 220 houses with several farm crops were submerged in the area while hundreds of people displaced.
Most of the area affected by the floods were farming communities where rice, yam and corn are grown. Members of the communities say heavy rainfall which lasted for several hours destroyed their properties worth millions of naira.
Emmanuel Nanpak, a resident of Mabudi, revealed that several homes were submerged in Mabudi Lashel, Turaki, Gehetu, Karkasi Magama among several other communities, as he requested for the government’s assistance.
Another citizen who also gave his name as Nankar Adams, said the flood disaster signals “an impending hunger in the locality,” because several major farmers in southern Plateau were affected by the floods.
Meanwhile, the North Central Coordinator of National Emergency Management agency (NEMA) Mr. Eugene Nyelong while speaking on the floods said that the water had receded and that most of the displaced people had gone back to their various abodes, adding that NEMA is making frantic effort to provide succour and relief materials to them.
Nyelong explained that, based on NIMET’s prediction there will be rainfall up to November this year, and urged people to go to higher grounds and avoid areas prone to flooding, so that they will not be caught unawares by the floods.
“On our part, we have been sensitising the people; recently we celebrated the World Disaster Risk Reduction Day. We have been reaching out to communities to tell them the need to stay away from flood prone areas,” he said.
But the State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Hon. Dan Manjang doused the fear of the people in the agrarian communities, saying the government is doing everything humanely possible to provide succour to alleviate their sufferings.