UYO
The chairman, Ukanafun Local Government has called on the federal government to find sustainable solution to flood menace in the country instead of the distribution of relief materials.
Mr Godwin Inyeing made the call at the distribution of relief materials to victims of the 2022 flood disaster in Akwa Ibom by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
At the event which recently took place in Uyo, Inyiengexplained that helping victims of natural disasters through the distribution of relief materials was not a better way of compensating them and should not be recurrent measures.
He pointed out that the Federal Government should desist from distributing bags of grains that would not equate losses incurred by victims of natural disasters but adopt permanent measures that would mitigate the reoccurrence of such challenges.
Inyieng said the distribution of rice and other food items could be insignificant to Ukanafun people whose expectations was to see an end to flood in the community and other parts of the country.
The council boss said he was not castigating the federal government for sharing food items to people affected by flood but rather government should do more to end flood in the country.
Inyieng maintained that there had been flood in several parts of the country due to activities of the Cameroonian governmentand this should be the area the Federal Government should look into by completing the dam project abandoned several years ago.
He noted that where the federal government should take action should be on the abandoned dam project that had led to the inflow of water into River Niger and Benue with the resultant incidents of flood that has ravaged parts of the country today.
He stated that the flood, occasioned by the emptying of a dam in Cameroon, had ravaged communities, farm areas in parts of Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Gombe and other Northern states and that was where his interest lie in ways of finding a sustainable solution to flood disasters in the country.
The council chairman, who received the materials for the affected people in Ukanafun, thanked the federal government for the gesture and the state governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, for doing the needful to make NEMA respond in the provision of relief materials to flood victims in the state.
He, however, thanked the Federal Government for assisting those who have lost houses, items and farmlands to flood in the state, saying, “For these grains that have come from the centre, we have received them with joy, we will share them to the victims and we pray that God whisper to the federal government to take proactive steps towards ending flood menace in the country.”
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