7 school children drown in Anambra community

No fewer than seven school children have been reported drowned and thousands rendered homeless in Iyiowa Odekpe, a riverine community in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State ravagied by flood.
Daily Sun gathered that the devastating flood that sacked some residents of the area was caused by blockage of a water channel in the area by Power Holding Company of Nigeria, (PHCN).

Narrating their ordeal to newsmen in Onitsha through their spokesperson, Sir Peter Okala, the Ogbaru Stakeholders’ Forum, lamented that most houses in the area had been totally submerged in the flood, which had been growing unabated, adding that the only solution was to re- open the water channel earlier blocked by the PHCN while erecting high tension poles.


The visibly troubled Okala also said in order to access their homes, residents had to construct make-shift wooden part ways, which he said had led to the death of not less than seven school children, who slipped off and got drowned on their way to school or church.
According to him, the residents had been having horrifying experiences as snakes, especially pythons had attacked some of the hapless victims, stating that the huge snakes even invade their poultry farms and devour their birds.

“At night, we can hardly sleep as we keep vigil to ensure that the snakes do not attack us while in bed. There was an incident when an elderly woman was nearly strangled by the snake, if not for the help of passersby, who came to her rescue and killed the snake, it is that bad.”
One of the victims, a poultry farmer, Okechukwu Macbeth narrated that he had lost nearly all his birds to the reptiles, saying at night, he and some members of his family, armed with machete, take turn to guard the birds, disclosing that they had killed some of the snakes in the process.

He also said apart from the horrifying attacks by huge pythons on the members of his family, he had lost one of his daughters to bite from a fish, called Asa.
Another member of the group, Lucky Owuama noted that despite the hard time the community was going through as a result of the blockage of the water channel by PHCN, the residents still grapple with the problem of total blackout, low shedding and random billing, stressing that at the end of every month, they were forced to pay between N5, 000 and N6, 000 by PHCN officials.


“We have embarked on peaceful demonstration to bring PHCN to look into our plight, especially the issue of the water channel and random billing but all we got were empty promises.
“Now we are appealing to the Federal Government and illustrious sons of Ogbaru to come to our aid before we are completely washed away by the raging flood. The authority should prevail on the PHCN to reopen the blocked water channel to avoid an epidemic and other disasters,” he said.

Culled from : Sun Newspaper