Flood hits Makurdi residents, renders hundreds homeless

Floods have destroyed many properties and rendered scores of residents homeless in Makurdi, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

NAN reports that flood has over the last decade become a yearly routine, destroying property worth millions of Naira and causing losses of lives in some cases.

A correspondent of the agency who went around the state capital reports that the disaster affected major parts of Achussah, Agber Village, Ayado Villa, and Judges Quarters, among others.

The areas are among the worst hit in the 2017 floods that displaced more than 120,000 persons in the Benue capital, Makurdi.

At Agber Village, Mr James Igbawua told NAN that the situation was beyond their control, adding that they reported the matter to all relevant authorities over the years but no positive response.

Igbawua said as a community, they could not do much as the situation required hundreds of millions to be addressed.

At Judge’s Quarters Extension, the situation was the same as waters overflowed a drainage system constructed on Ashavir street, thereby rendering the residents with no access roads.

The disaster has also rendered many around the area homeless as the floods have taken over their homes temporarily.

In 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated a 3.35-kilometre drainage channel to address ecological challenges facing Idye Community in Makurdi, Benue.

The channel has significantly reduced the effect of the floods around the axis but since the second and third phases of the project were yet to be constructed, there was no free flow of water, thereby causing more damage to areas like Agber, Achussah and Nyiman.

The State Commissioner for Water Resources and Environment, Dr Godwin Oyiwona had earlier told NAN that Idye Basin was the major cause of flood in Makurdi metropolis.

Oyiwona said that an undisclosed amount had been approved by the government for the cleaning of the Idye Basin that controlled most of the water flow within the town to River Benue.

He further disclosed that other areas that were not connected to the Basin were being treated separately to ensure that there was no longer flood in 2022.

He said government was doing everything possible to educate those residing along areas prone to flood, to reduce its impact on them.

He said flood, which became a yearly problem of the state, had over the years destroyed property worth billions of Naira and lives, adding that huge amount of money was needed to address it permanently.