From Port Harcourt, Rivers State
Children at the make shift camps for displaced flood victims at the Ahoada East/West and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government areas are now exposed to diarrhea and other diseases.
Our correspondent who visited some camps set up by the Rivers State government reports that a good number of children are not in good health because of the hazardous environment and lack of medical facilities.
Some mothers who spoke to our correspondent complained that most of the children have been affected by diarrhea and malaria illness has become a trend among the children.
The women also complained that the Ede-Oha camp in Ahoada East received insufficient mosquito nets and little or no medical care because the medical officers assigned to the camp has left (as at the time of filing this report) because of lack of medical equipments like drugs and others.
An officer of a civil society group, Earth Skin Conservation Foundation also at the Ede-Oha camp who confirmed the death of two persons at the camp as a result of heavy and constant stooling of one of the dead victims explained that the hazardous environment of the camp has resulted to some illness on the campers and diarrhea on the children. “The environment here is not friendly to the campers. Even as we speak you can see mosquitoes perching n biting us, you can imagine the experience at night. One of the 2deaths recorded so far in this camp is as a result of heavy and continuous stooling which led his death while the other died of trauma”, he said.
The N.G.O officer also complained about the lack of cooking utensils and spices which has resulted to the campers having late breakfast as late as one p.m
Also in Omoku town, most of the camps there have the same reports of malaria and diarrhea outbreak in especially children. The campers complained about insufficient mattresses as a good number of them are seen lying on the bare cold floor.
They also complained about eating one same food (rice) without variety to choose from and called on organizations that have intensions to assist them to give also spices and provision for stew and soups also.
The camp director from the Nigerian Red Cross, David West who confirmed the needs explained that the camp needs about three hundred and fifty mattresses and mosquito nets and other food items for variety of soups. He also explained that the campers sometimes have late meal because of lack of kitchen utensils and firewood to cook their meals adding that the place where this food is prepared is not convenient.
However, contrary to the reports of the Chairman of the rivers State flood relief committee who is also the Rivers State Deputy Governor Tele Ikuru during a press conference in Port Harcourt, claims that, in quote “relief materials ranging from food items, firewood, mattresses, pillows, blankets, mosquito nets, treated water and electricity have been supplied to all camps while doctors and nurses have been posted to all camps to provide effective medical services”.
Our Correspondent who visited these camps described the claims of the Flood relief committee chairman as a “political lie” because almost all the camps were complaining of lack of cooking materials like firewood which he claimed he has supplied to all the camps. It will also be recalled that during his visit, he ordered the women at the Ede-Oha camp to go fetch firewood in farms and bushes so they can cook their meals, but they replied that the farms and bushes have been submerged.
On electricity and “treated water” the government claimed to have provided, there was none in the Ede-Oha camp until a Philanthropist, Prince Tonye Princewill visited and donated a water tank with bore hole facility and a generator set to power the camp coupled with clothing and other food items.
Also, effective medical services and materials that he also claimed to have provided were lacking in the Ede-Oha and community primary school camps in Ahoada East. The Doctor seen at the community primary school in Ahoada town and St, Stephen primary school in Omoku complained that malarial drugs and other emergency drugs are lacking at the camps while no doctors, nurses or medical equipment were sighted at the Ede-Oha camp.
During the Pan Rivers summit held in the State capital, the chairman of the flood relief committee while responding to a question still confidently stated that “all our camps have water and treated water. All our camps have proper toilet built and bathroom for people to use. Kitchens are built in all the camps and 10, 000 mosquito nets distributed to all camps”, etc while the campers are yet to see these items.
Never the less, out of the seven hundred million naira doled out to temporary ameliorate the plight of displace persons by the ravaging floods, a quarter of this money is yet to be felt. At this point the government is supposed to use this opportunity to indeed prove the popular cliché of the definition of government:“government by the people, of the people and for the people.
The figure of the internally displaced persons from the flood in the affected 183 communities that spread across four LGAs in Rivers State, Abua/Odual, Ahoada West, Ahoada East and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni have risen so far to about 830, 000 people and properties worth billions of naira submerged and completely washed away by the ravaging waters.
