Epidemic and Poverty Loom in Akwa Ibom as Flooding Escalates

Residents of Akwa Ibom, one of the coastal states in Nigeria are on red alert as flood sweeps across homes, with no solution in sight.

Recall that Akwa Ibom was among the 10 states listed by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) that would experience a high impact risk of flooding in 2024.

Only recently, Joseph Utserv, the Minister of Water Resources said that some states had already started experiencing varying levels of flooding and its associated disasters.

He stated that most of the flood incidents recorded so far were flash or urban flood, resulting from high rainfall and poor or blocked drainage systems.

However, Akwa Ibom is among the states witnessing the impact of flooding primarily from the consistent rainfalls, worsened by blocked drainages and illegal structures built on the waterways.

Residents of Uyo metropolis such as Udoette, school road, Nelson Mandela, Urua Ekpa, Oron Road, Abak Road, just to mention but a few, count losses each time it rains as their houses and shops get flooded.

Also, residents of Eket, in the Eket local government area of the state are not spared.

A resident of Edohoeket Street, in Eket, Mr. Samuel Esu lamented that properties worth several millions of naira were affected by the heavy downpour of last Friday, even as he attributed the flooding to improper channelling of flood water that led to blockage.

Apart from the economic losses, the state had witnessed human loss to flood.

A fortnight ago, a retired Director of a Ministry, lost his life at his residence in Ewet housing estate, Uyo, as his building was submerged at night.

Also, a security man with one of the new generation banks last year met his untimely death as he was drowned in flood along Grace Bill Road, Eket.

According to one Mrs Iquo Uwah, who witnessed the incident; while the deceased was returning home, he could not identify the end of the road and the beginning of the gutter as the entire place was flooded.

He mistakenly slipped into the gutters which took him away and his corpse recovered later in the day.

Similarly, a trader in Nkemba street by Abak Road, Uyo, met her untimely death when she was returning from market and fell inside a gutter. Her corpse is yet to be recovered.

It was also reported that no fewer than three communities, which include Nung Obio Enang, along Stadium Road, Urua Ekpa axis and Afaha Oku villages in Uyo metropolis were last week submerged by flood and the people sacked from their homes.

Save Our Souls’ letter by the village council of Afaha Oku villages, signed by Eteidung Emmanuel Eka and the secretary, Sipol Cosmos Ebong and made available to our correspondent, the community leaders said flood had threatened the foundation of the village, with some buildings collapsing.

The village, which is the host community of the University of Uyo, appealed to Governor Umo Eno to award a contract to rehabilitate the affected roads for residents to return to their houses.

One of the victims, Mr Etop Effiong, who spoke with our correspondent, said the flood has been a perennial problem that confronts residents in the last 12 years, adding that the issue worsened after the construction of Stadium Road by Julius Berger during the administration of Senator Godswill Akpabio.

He said the construction firm lifted up the road without drainage to channel the water away from compounds, adding that during heavy rainfalls and throughout the rainy season, they had to quit from their houses before water dries up in their houses.

On of the victims, Mr Etop Effiong, who spoke with our correspondent, said the flood has been a perennial problem that confronts residents in the last 12 years, adding that the issue worsened after the construction of Stadium Road by Julius Berger during the administration of Senator Godswill Akpabio.

He said the construction firm lifted up the road without drainage to channel the water away from compounds, adding that during heavy rainfalls and throughout the rainy season, they had to quit from their houses before water dries up in their houses.

In Urua Ekpa, the residents said the condition of the area became worse when the state government awarded a flood control project to a local contractor (name withheld) who ended up throwing the entire community into irredeemable flood.