By ROMANUS OKOYE
Everyone in the community – men, women and children – are now refugees in foreign lands where they have been cast out like fish out of water, left to rue the disaster that has left them completely in ruins. The older ones among them recall that the last time a near similar disaster devastated their land was in 1969. Then there was heavy flooding that washed away farmlands and crops in the fields. It also affected some residential buildings and disrupted social and economic life of the people in the interim.
But the present overflow of the River Niger, which has summarily sacked many communities, living along its bank, is simply incomparable. The community says never in its history has anyone witnessed such a colossal loss occasioned by the disaster. It is serious and its consequences would soon break on the entire state since the area is considered the food basket of the state.
The Anam people are counting their losses, which are unarguably many. They say the community’s many shrines and the deities that occupy the altars have all been washed deep into the wide, wide River Niger, leaving the bewildered residents wondering if there is anything left of their perceived powers. More than that, the floodwater has left them not even a single portion where they could bury their dead so that the departed could have their deserved rest among the ancestors. So, many people in the area and adjoining communities are downcast, suppressed by the enormous weight of the deluge that has left their once bubbling land desolate.
But a young man identified as Alex Chinedu is having a sad reflection on the loss of his people, which he said was total. “My people have lost everything, their entire means of livelihood – everything we had laboured for all our lives,” he lamented tearfully. “You can’t imagine that people who for many years have been living in their homes and supplying food to others are now the ones living in refugee camps and begging for food; this flooding is simply a catastrophe.” Chinedu, an indigene of Anam resides in Lagos. He rushed home when news broke that his community and the entire Anambra West had gone under water, as the roaring floods had sent the people packing, damaging valuable economic and personal property. He wanted to see things for himself. He told Daily Sun that he was shocked to see that his ancestral home had simply vanished.
“Right now, everyone is struggling to gather the bits and pieces of their lives,” he said as he reflected on the magnitude of the disaster. Chinedu’s current posture mirrors the mood of every Anamite (as the people of Anam proudly call themselves) both at home and abroad. A distraught man in his late fifties told Daily Sun as he soliloquised: “Truly, this is not the best of times for our people and everyone in Anambra West.” Then like a man truly under torment, he roared in anguish “What! With this ugly situation, trouble has come. Hunger is right here. It is just at the doorsteps. Our people, until now, were the suppliers of food to the entire Anambra State. But now, we have become refugees in other lands. This flood has turned us into dependants. This flood has left us bewildered. It has destroyed our farmlands, economic trees, houses – everything that we laboured to build in the recent and distant past.
Indeed, our future is bleak; only God will help us.” Ordinarily, most places in Anambra West, also called Mmbamili, experience flooding yearly between the months of August and November. But this year’s flood came earlier than the normal time. Ironically, the floods used to be a blessing for the people of Anam because in the past, it used to leave rich deposits of alluvial soil, which makes the land fertile for agriculture. Besides, each time the floods arrived, they brought with them all manner of fish which the fishermen sold for huge profit.
But now the entire picture is different. Those who have good memories say it was only in 1969 that flooding of this year’s magnitude happened. But it could not be compared to the level of disaster that has sent the people into refugee camps at General Hospital, Umueri, Unity primary school, Umuoba Anam, Father Joseph Secondary School, Aguleri and Holy Trinity, Onitsha.
Ironically, while some people are bemoaning the loss of their means of livelihood, some are equipping themselves for a bumper fish harvest by the time the floods start to recede. Hunters in the area are also having a field day, the reporter learnt. They are busy counting their blessings as animals displaced by the flood are virtually walking into the hunters’ hands. But a widow who painted a more pathetic picture of the woes of the Anam people said: “The situation is so bad now that it may be difficult to find dry land to bury any dead bodies should deaths begin to occur.” Meanwhile, all the churches and schools in communities in Anambra West Local Government area, including Onono, Umuikwu, Umudora, Aniachalla, Oroma Etiti, Ukpo, Umuenwelum, Umueze Anam, Nmiata, Iyiora, Umuoba Abegbu, Oboro-Otu, Nkwo-Oji, Nzam and all their neighbours have been submerged. This has brought church services, schooling, farming and other human activities in the area to an abrupt end. “The only place we can meet for church service is at Umunta in Umudora Anam,” one man said.
Right now in Anambra West, there is no drinking water. The floodwater has polluted and overrun the local stream from where the community fetches its drinking water. Even the pipe borne water facilities in the area has been submerged. A farmer in Anam who identified himself as Ogbuefi said food crops like yam seedlings, cassava sticks, melon seed, maize; pumpkin pods and others kept in barns for the next farming season have either been destroyed or washed away by the raging flood. He predicted that food items would be scarce and very expensive next year.
Community leaders in Anam are calling on the relevant government agencies and corporate organisations to come to the aid of residents of the flood-ravaged areas. They call on the state and federal governments to ensure that the money pledged by President Goodluck Jonathan is spent on mitigating the suffering of the affected residents. An official of the Anam Town Union said the area contributes close to 50 per cent of the food consumed in Anambra State. He said urgent steps must be taken by government to prevent food scarcity in the area next year.
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