Flooded Ikpide-Irri Community in Delta State Loses Homes, Farmlands

A community primary school has been submerged in a flood while hundreds of residents have become homeless in Ikpide-Irri community in Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State as the flood destroyed farmlands and properties.

SaharaReporters reliably gathered that the community, whose main occupation is farming, has till the time of filing this report not received government attention despite the devastation by the flood.

Our correspondent who visited the community observed that following the overflow of River Niger, water submerged a substantial part of the community.

The community's former president general, Joseph Ubeleke, lamented the level caused by the flood, adding that the community had been going through untold hardship since the beginning of the rainy season.

He called on the federal and Delta State governments as well as non-governmental organisations to come to their aid by providing relief materials and financial assistance.

Ubeleke appealed to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and other relevant government agencies to take immediate actions concerning the disaster.

"The flood is so massive that people now use canoes inside the community," he said. "The four quarters in the community, Otehe, Uzi, Ogbuku and Eboh are all submerged by the flood as we talk. Vehicles no longer ply our roads again because the flood already washed away the roads.

"We want to use this medium to appeal to the federal and Delta state governments and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and other relevant government agencies concerning the erosion encroaching and at the verge of cutting off our community into the River Niger.

"We the people of Ikpide-Irri are using this medium to appeal to the governments, NDDC and other relevant bodies to construct for us shoreline protection to put an end to the erosion and perennial flood in the community. As we talk, farmlands and other properties lost in flood are worth about N50 million."

A widow, farmer and petty trader, who identified herself as Fulani, lamented the hardship the current flood had brought unto her, adding that the flood has destroyed all she has worked for this year.

Other women in the community, who narrated their ordeal, also appealed to the government and philanthropists to come to their aid.

The flood also affected Uzere, Aviara, Olomoro, Igbide, Enwhe, Umeh and Erowha communities of Isoko South Local Government Area and other parts of the state.