Group Urges Rehabilitation Of 2012 Flood Victims

The Community Emer
gency Response Initiative (CERI), an NGO, last Thursday in Abuja urged the Federal Government to ensure that its intervention efforts were geared toward restoring sources of livelihood of the 2012 flood victims.
The Executive Director of the organisation, Mr Benson Attah, told newsmen in Abuja that government needed to intervene to ensure effective amelioration of the impact of the disaster.
He said that sources of livelihood lost in the devastating flood needed to be restored.
“Apart from the emergency relief, there was loss of sources of livelihood such as farmlands and government has not provided a make-up for the huge losses.
Attah stressed that in addition to the immediate emergency relief earlier provided, “government needs to build the victims up to return to their former positions”.
He further faulted the intervention process, insisting that there were gaps in meeting peoples’ demands.
“For most of the victims, life has never been the same again after the floods.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government as well as notable philanthropic individuals also doled out whopping amounts to assuage the impact and ensure proper rehabilitation and re-integration.
Attah cautioned that increased urbanisation, inadequate urban planning laws, lack of drains and erecting buildings in flood plains contributed substantially to worsen the effects of floods when they occurred.
He also urged farmers to always insure their businesses, to protect them from such losses.
The 2012 flood was reportedly caused by the release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon and the heavy rainfall experienced between May and September.
The flood waters which swept through more than 20 states, claimed many lives and destroyed property worth hundreds of millions of naira.
As at November 5, 2012, over 363 people had died with about two million others displaced due to the flood.
The states most affected were Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau, Benue, Bayelsa, Kogi, Niger, Lagos and Rivers.