The Senate, Tuesday, urged the Federal Government, through its agencies, to take urgent steps to rescue and ameliorate the sufferings of communities ravaged by recent flood menace in Abia North senatorial district of Abia state.
The Senate’s call for emergency provisions for flood-ravaged communities, followed a motion moved by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (APC Abia North).
Senator Kalu told his colleagues that the recent downpour in some communities of Abia North senatorial district of Abia state, caused severe damages to the affected communities.
He lamented that the ugly occurrence which a came with lightning and thunder was so severe and devastating that some lives were lost in the flood, connecting roads, completely cut off, making movement between communities impossible, farmlands were washed away and destroyed with attendant losses of crops and livestock amounting to several millions of Naira.
Some houses, according to him, lost their roofs while others with weak foundations collapsed and occupants displaced alongside their helpless families, noting that the worst hit were Okoko-Item Primary School, Okposi Primary School, a radio station, a university structure and many other houses in Bende LGA.
He lamented further that with the destruction of certain infrastructures, the affected residents majority of whom were rural dwellers, artisans and farmers were presently faced with existence without basic necessities of life.
“If no emergency response was provided for the victims, the dislocated society would be worse for it, and regrettable number of casualties might be recorded”, he said.
After his presentation, the Senate accordingly, called on the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs & Poverty Alleviation and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), to urgently make emergency provision available to cushion the effects on victims of the affected communities in Abia North senatorial district.
It also urged the Ecological Fund Department of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Environment and Ecological Management to urgently assess the extent of damages on erosion sites of the areas with a view to providing some measures of rebuilding the damaged environment created by this ugly incidence.
Senate also urged the Federal Ministries of Housing and Urban Development and Power, to rehabilitate some of the collapsed homes, roads and electric installations within the affected areas, just mandated its Committees on Legislative Compliance and Environment, to ensure compliance and report back to the Senate within four weeks.
