The Delta state commissioner for environment, Mr. Chris Onogba has revealed that the state government is extremely interested in reducing the pains of existing and would be flood victims in the state.
He disclosed this in a statement during a media parley with members of the indigenous correspondents Chapel (ICC) of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Onogba noted that building camps, as usual, are not the way to go in a time like this, taking cognizance of the Covid-19 virus currently ravaging the world, as camps would certainly turn out to be breeding grounds for the virus bearing in mind the numbers of people that will be found in these camps.
He added that no sane person would consider building camps as it would definitely breach all covid-19 protocols in place and further increase the spread of the virus.
The commissioner hinted that advocacy is the way forward towards reducing the effects of flooding on its victims. ” Currently we are engaging in advocacy for people to move to higher grounds, I remember during my boat ride to some communities, we discovered that people have relocated, and this is a result of early advocacy” but it doesn’t mean that the government will not do anything to ameliorate the suffering of the people, the government is working assiduously to ensure that palliatives get to these affected persons.
Onogba also said that the government is working so hard to ensure that the flood doesn’t hit the state so hard as it did in 2012 hinting that “We have done a lot to reduce flooding, done desilting of agbor, ologodo, anwai river, and also cleared creeks in bomadi and environs, so when the flood eventually comes, it won’t be as bad as before, also people should help by desisting from making our drains dumping sites with the idea that the rains will flush it all, and also, people should desist from building on natural waterways, because together, I mean together, we can make the environment clean, so I appeal to deltans to join hands together in this drive to create a clean organized Delta”
. He also called on interventionist commissions like the Niger Delta Development Commission to take their hands of small water schemes and engage in proper intervention schemes to rescue the Niger Delta like dredging and shore protection in the case of flooding “Dredging and shore protection can help reduce reoccurring flood which is supposed to be a role of interventionist agencies like NDDC. NDDC should take their hands off small water schemes, street lights, 1 km roads, maternity homes ét ál, for state and local governments, all of the money we have wasted on NDDC if well utilized will ease the burden facing Niger Delta, but after 20 years they have failed colossally and these are our own people”
The commissioner urged Nigerians to desist from the act of not planting a tree in their homes taking cognizance of a fact that there’s been a 2% reduction of oxygen in planet earth hinting that “As I speak to you I’m planning a tree corridor in the airport, even before I became commissioner, I’ve always liked trees, so I challenge everyone, to join me and plant at least 5 trees in our lifetime, and by so doing we would have directly impacted in climate change.
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