The Ravaging Flood and its Effects on Kogi Communities

By Ayobami Omole, Lokoja 

It’s no longer news that Thousands of People have been displaced and properties worth several millions of naira have been destroyed in Kogi State as a result of the overflow of the Rivers Niger and Benue. This of course includes the state’s seat of power as several communities in Lokoja including Ganaja, Adankolo and Kabawa Areas have been flooded as the water level keeps increasing at an alarming rate. 

Although the Flood is currently destroying properties, farmlands, livestock and other business premises, the natural disaster have become a source of livelihood to so many people as youths and able bodied men have resorted into transporting people and properties with the use of canoe. To them, it is a blessing in disguise. Although the lazy ones are also using the same canoes to loot and burgle people’s houses where they are unable to evacuate their valuables. They go to the extent of carting electricity bulbs, ceiling fans, wall hangers and other fittings in the abandoned houses.

Dissecting the effects of the Flood reveals that the negative effects are more than the goods that it might bring. In Kogi today, no case of death have so far been reported but the psychological effect of the flood is capable of killing and maiming the victims. Some victims are hypertensive while others have one form of life threatening ailment or the other, adding the trauma of the flooding incidence is enough to worsen their medical health.

The increasing level of water makes it difficult to determine if there is a near end to the flood because the level increases both day and night as people daily wake up to see their houses in the water. It is therefore not out of place to say that the more people will be displaced and more houses will be submerged. 

Aside the psychological effect, Kogi State and other neighboring in no distant time will experience shortage of food as agricultural practices and food production have been crippled as a result of the flood that have swept so many farmlands away. Poultries, Farm Stores and Processing Centres are not left out as they also took their share of the destructive flood. Food scarcity looms as there is virtually no means of importing food products from areas that are not affected by the flood. All major roads are currently flooded and the easiest way is to use the canoe as there are no alternative routes to follow.

 Its important to note that businesses around the affected areas have been closed and the economy of such places is currently down as business activities remain grounded. Business owners are already moving their properties out of their business premises and the environment becomes deserted while the said lazy ones take advantage of such situation to loot the shops and business places. The artisans are not left out as several workshops have been submerged in the water. Mechanic workshops  where  vehicles are parked have been overran by the fast flowing water while furniture makers have woke up to see their already made wares under the water.

The natural disaster is also posing serious threat to the health and wellness of Residents and Citizens of Kogi State. Apart from being able to cause outbreak of diseases and epidemy, the water comes with debris and dangerous aquatic animals including snakes. The odour from the visibly polluted water is highly disgusting and offensive, yet some people are still seen loitering around the polluted environment. Wells and reservoir are also consumed and this is capable of causing water shortage as well as outbreak of cholera if such contaminated water is injected into the body system.