Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsh
About 2,000 residents of Okpoko community in Ogbaru Local Government Area, Anambra state have been sacked by a devastating flood that has rendered them homeless.
The flood was caused by frequent and constant rainfall that lasted for more than a week, destroying houses and other valuables in the community.
The President-General of Okpoko community, Chief Edwin Emesinwa, while reacting to the menace said that the areas most affected were Ezeakunne street, Unity Comprehensive Secondary School, Okpoko secretariat and Obodoukwu road where the Sakamori drainage system that is about 15 feet deep, has been completely filled with sand and silt.
“Within the Ezeakunne Street, Unity Comprehensive Secondary School and Okpoko secretariat about 100 houses that housed about 700 people that included tenants and landlords were either pulled down or filled with sand up to the roofing level by the flood and residents of such houses have fled and some of their belongings buried in the sand.
“Over 1,300 of those living along Obodoukwu road have also been rendered homeless and their houses destroyed and the road made impassable by the flood.”
Emesinwa noted that “any time it rains in Okpoko just like it did three days ago, we will not have rest as there will be destructions in various places here in Okpoko and nobody is spared by the devastating flood that comes from Awada area.
“Since the commencement of this year’s rainy reason, it is destruction galore in Okpoko by the flood.
“Most parents don’t allow their children to go to school if it rains and those already in school will be quickly picked up by their parents who will rush to their various schools less the flood carries them” he stated.
A landlord and victim of the flood on Ezeakunne Street, Mr. Ugochukwu Ejezie, said that the flood was mainly caused following rehabilitation works on Mgbemena Street, Awada, Obosi by the state government. He said that had worsened the flooding with the sand carried from the construction site being deposited in Okpoko area.
“About 50 houses have given way and the only government secondary school is about to give way, the laboratory (science block) has been affected too,” Ejezie lamented.