Niger Delta
UNICEF Co-ordinator Storms C’River To Assess Water Projects
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Emergency Coordinator, Enugu State, has visited the Cross River State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency RUWATSSA.
Receiving the Coordinator, the General Manager, RUWATSSA, Mr. Patrick Echi Emori said, Cross River State experienced severe flood last year as a result of the overflow of the Cameroun tributaries.
Emori said that because of the exceptional long rains, communities were sub-merged with some relocated temporarily since they were not willing to leave their ancestral homes.
The General Manager stated that although UNICEF recently supported the State in the Water and Sanitation Communities Led Total Sanitation CLTS – behavioral change project against defecating by distributing Information, Education and Communication materials, it is hoped that the effects of the next rains will be minimal.
The Director General of the State Emergency Management Agency-SEMA, Mr. Vincent Aquah, acknowledged the receipt of relief materials from UNICEF to the State and said Cross River State is prepared to contain the next flood since it is a regular occurrence in many parts of the State.
Aquah disclosed that the management of flood this year will be different adding that many communities have not recovered from the impact of last year’s flood. He said, a sensitization program is underway to sensitize communities.
Speaking earlier, the UNICEF Emergency Cordinator, Enugu State, Mr. Johan Edler said he was visiting the State to ascertain the level of preparedness and the level of coordination between the different stakeholders as coordinated by the State Emergency Management Agency-SEMA, Cross River State RUWATSSA for Water and Sanitation (WASH), Ministry of Health and its Education counterpart.
Edler said he is coordinating three States on emergency including Cross River, Bayelsa and Anambra, but will want the Emergency Preparedness approach through the intervention of UNICEF to be piloted from Cross River State.