Like 70 NEWS houses have caved into the River Niger while graves have been washed away within the last six weeks in Ogbaru area of Anambra State owing to flooding and activities of sand excavators at the bank of the River Niger.
Chairman of Ogbaru Stakeholders Forum, Sir Peter Okala, who disclosed this to reporters in Onitsha yesterday, said that a national tragedy of monumental proportion is imminent in Anambra unless the government at all levels rises up to the challenge.
Okala, who was accompanied by the Secretary of the Stakeholders Forum, Chris Nwabueze, and Public Relations Officer, Mathew Akuma, decried the attitude of the state and federal government in the handling of Sakamori drainage constructed in the 80’s by the then Shagari administration. The drainage serves as a collection channel for all flood waters from Onitsha North and South, Idemili North and South through the Idemili River before emptying into the River Niger.
They noted that the drainage has been filled beyond its capacity with refuse and sand, causing the Ogbaru end of the channel to be flooded after little rainfall. Okala and company insisted that all complaints to the government have fallen on deaf ears.
They noted that the death of seven people swept away by flood on September 6 within the connecting drainage at Upper Iweka would have been avoided if the necessary measures were put in place.
They called for the building of concrete perimeter fencing on the bank of the River Niger to save the only motorable road that serves the Ogbaru community.
