Gift Ejinkonye was processing harvested cassava when our correspondent met her at a place named ‘Location’ in Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State.
Gift told our correspondent that she lost over N2 million to floods in 2022.
Scared of this year’s floods, Gift had harvested her cassava products prematurely.
“I have harvested the few cassava tubers there. I had better use it now than lose everything to floods,” she lamented.
The 2023 rainfall has already shown signs of what is to come.
READ ALSO: Climate change hits community as heavy flooding sacks school children
Earlier this year, Gift and her family had moved all their properties away from home after a day of rainfall led to devastating flooding in the area.
Due to the situation, the family had been sleeping on bare floors and sometimes mats.
According to her, their biggest fear was the possibility of floods that could sack the community again in 2023.
She lamented that the only intervention the community had got from the government or any group was bags of rice shared after the 2022 floods. Even the bags of rice only got to a few residents. She had never seen the government carry out any project to mitigate flooding in the community, she said.
Gift declined a picture, citing fears of exclusion in any intervention.
“If I take a picture currently now and it gets to the media, if they share anything, even rice or any intervention, they may exclude me,” she stated.
She was not alone. Gabriel Stanley was embittered when Dataphyte met him. He cut a figure of an angry man. Upon seeing our correspondent, Gabriel wondered what everyone was doing to come to their aid.
“We do not understand what is happening. Why is no one coming to our aid? All these oil companies close by here are worsening our situation than helping us,” he lamented.
Throughout our correspondent’s visit to different locations in Imo and Anambra State, one thing was constant: the people’s frustration and hopelessness in the face of the upcoming rainy season, which had already started sacking people from their homes.
Amacheke in Imo state is another such locality. An oil-rich community, many persons who spoke with our correspondent noted that their only hope was God.
One of the natives, Ms Ebere Udokwu, narrated how her family was sacked in 2022, forcing them to move to a makeshift apartment.
“When we faced this situation, the government came in canoe because no one could access the area. They made so many promises, but nothing has been seen. This year, we do not even know what to expect again,” she said in an emotionally-laden voice
When the floods sacked the only community secondary school, Ebere withdrew her children from it.
Dataphyte visited the community school, which had been overtaken by grass.
Agitated community residents noted that the school, which was sacked by the 2022 flooding, was abandoned, and parents were forced to take their kids to schools in the neighboring Rivers State.
Those whose parents could not afford private schools far away in town or in Rivers State were out of school.
Different residents of the area who spoke with our correspondent stated that, just like in Location community, the government was not interested in mitigating flood disasters but was merely focused on distributing rice and food items. They said that they had been abandoned by the government.
A resident, Mr Sunday Nwosu, said that he was leaving his home due to the imminent flooding. He had been forced to take his four children to a relative.
“I do not know what to say, but I am leaving before the flood chases me. I do not know where to go, but I have to abandon my house. Already, my family have left, and I am the only one that comes here,” he said.
At a community named Okwuzi, houses had already been sacked by floods.
The Imo State government budgeted N1.257 billion for tunnel works to Nworie River as well as flood and erosion control of Okwelle-Irete in the 2023 budget. Findings show that the government was yet to commence these projects as of the first quarter of 2023.
At Okwelle-Irete, floods had already sacked some streets, preventing access to important areas. Our correspondent toured a place named Works Layout Street but saw no sign of government project or project tunnel.
Same situation in Anambra
This was the same situation in different communities visited in Anambra State. At Nwannu land in Awka South Local Government Area, residents told our correspondent that some projects initiated by the administration of the immediate past governor of Anambra State, Mr Willie Obiano, were abandoned.
“The state government constructed some drainage systems under Willie Obiano, but we did not see anything afterwards,” a resident who identified himself as Tochukwu Daniel revealed.
A visit to Milatel Street in the same local government area showed that drainages were actually constructed. It was unclear if this was the N57 million flood and erosion control project listed by the government on its open contracting data standard portal, as there was neither visible signpost nor contract identification around the project. Milatel Street had only two significant buildings.
The only visible project with a government signpost close to Milatel was the one funded by the World Bank under the NEWMAP for St Thomas Aquinas/Neros Plaza Erosion Site and not Milatel Street erosion control work.
While the Anambra State government listed a N142 million flood and erosion control project for Ngene in Amawbia, Anambra State, no such project was seen in the area when our correspondent visited the location.
Residents noted that no such project was sited in their community.
Of all the respondents spoken to at different locations, none of them knew about climate change nor the reason for the increased rainfall, showing their ignorance of the main cause of floods.
States fail to back erosion control with financial commitments
A review of budget documents shows that in 2022, the Imo state government budgeted the sum of N7 billion for the remediation of 30 flood and soil erosion sites.
However, the state spent nothing on it in 2022, which might explain why all the communities visited had no government intervention.
In 2023, N386 million was budgeted for flood and erosion control in Okwelle-Irete, while the tunnel from the Works Layout avenue to Nworie River was to cost N1 billion.
As of the first quarter of 2023, work was yet to commence in those sites.
Between 2022 and 2021, Imo State got N1.4 billion as ecological funds.
In 2022, Anambra State’s climate change agency budgeted N570 million as capital expenditure. However, this agency recorded 0% budget performance.
In 2021, Anambra State government budgeted N300 million as capital expenditure for its erosion, watershed, and climate change agency. However, zero naira was spent as of half-year (based on the available information provided by the state government).
This was despite that the state received N1.971 billion ecological fund between 2022 and 2021.
The refusal of the states to spend funds earmarked for erosion control comes amid recorded deaths blamed on floods in 2022.
While Enugu state did not include its actual expenditure on erosion and flood control in its budget performance reports like its counterpart states, it budgeted substantial amounts for flood and erosion control. For instance, the state budgeted N1 billion for emergency erosion control works for all 17 local government areas.
States badly hit by flooding in 2022 have posted worrying budget performance reports.
For instance, Kogi State budgeted N105.480 million for floods in 2021. However, only N26.908 million was spent on erosion control, depicting 26 percent budget performance. In 2022, the state flood and erosion control budget stood at N106.3 million. However, at the year’s end, only N4 million was spent, representing 3.8 percent.
Kogi state received N1.3 billion in ecological funds in two years.
Rivers State budgeted N1.167 billion for flood and erosion control in 2022 but recorded 0 percent performance as of half-year, based on information available and provided by the state. In 2022, Rivers got N801 million as ecological funds.
In 2021, Kwara State spent no money on erosion and flood control. The state listed these items under “Dredging and channelisation of ecological problem sites” but did not spend any money on it.
In 2021, the state received N511 million as ecological funds.
The Anambra State government had promised intervention for people affected by flooding.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Imo State governor, Mr Oguike Nwachukwu, noted that the State was doing everything within its capacity to ensure that flood victims were supported.
“Government is really doing a lot in the Ohaji/Egbema axis and other parts of Imo State where natural disasters have disorganised normal lifestyle.
“Just recently, the Ohaji Egbema communities took delivery of palliative materials running into millions of naira as part of measures to ameliorate the effects of the case under review.
“Nobody has control over natural occurrences, but as a caring government under a performing Governor Hope Uzodimma, whatever ails any part of the state, ails the government. Hence like you noted, N7 billion was budgeted for disaster-related issues in the area, and that is just a budget because what government is doing in the area in terms of infrastructure renewal, health, education, road, among others, are geared towards the well-being of the people with or without flood threat.” he said.
The Director of Waterwide, Mr Wilson Atumeyi, noted that there was a need to audit how states were spending funds given to them to tackle ecological issues such as flooding. He noted that there was also the need for multi-layer stakeholder engagement to ensure that states would not pay lip attention to the keen need to tackle flooding and other climate-related issues.
He wondered what states did with ecological funds received, noting that the impact of such funds was not felt in 2022 and could probably not be felt in 2023.
This report was produced in fulfilment of the UNESCO & CIJ London Climate Change in News Media project facilitated by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development.