By Ike Uchechukwu

EFUT IKWA—FLOOD is threatening to overrun the people of Efut Ikwa community, Calabar South Local Government Area, Cross River State. The village head, His Highness (Ndabu) Akamba Mutanda Kake, who appealed to the state governor, Prof Ben Ayade, to come to the rescue of the villagers, said residents use canoe to access their homes whenever it rained heavily.

(Flood) Waterlogged house

“Besides flood, we are faced by a lot of challenges in this locality and you know that living life without basic things like potable drinking water, access road, electricity can make life very difficult,” Kake stated.

He said the people executed most of the projects in the community through self-help, adding, “We are not saying that we are tired but we need a little intervention from the government and its agencies; we have been making efforts to reach out to them through letters but we have not gotten any response.”

Residents access homes with canoe

“Look at the bridge, it is still wooden even the other culvert was built from our little contribution, the drainage is also by community effort and there are no roads.   During the rainy season, there are some compounds you cannot have access to and their occupants cannot come out unless they use canoe, it is that bad,” he lamented.

The monarch said, “The people of Efut Ikwa are very responsible citizens and also law- abiding, we have about three polling Units in this place and we perform our civic duties and responsibili-ties, so I believe we should also be included in the scheme of things by the current administration.”

His Excellency is an action governor and I believe he will do something if he gets this appeal because my people here are really suffering, we still live life as if it was in the 30’s,” Ndabu submitted. An indigene of the community, Effiong Ekpeyong, told Niger Delta Voice that the youths of the community have really put in a lot as they work almost on a weekly basis to make sure that flood did not submerge their homes, which is always the case when it rains.

Hear him, “We are just fortunate that this year’s has been a little bit dry and its not been heavy like the previous years,   even at that,   you cannot enter this place when it rains because no matter the degree of the rain,   once the drainage are filled,   this whole place will be submerged by flood.”

Way out

“We stay close to the creeks and a bit swampy, if only the government can help construct a road with drainage, this flooding challenge will disappear. You can imagine coming out from your house with a canoe just because there are no roads it is quite awkward,” he said. One of the landlords, Mr. Moses Antigha, asserted,” Our major problem here is lack of access road and good drainage system, we have really tried to do the little we can collectively as inhabitants in this commu-nity,   but we still need government’s intervention as soon as possible.”

A top official of the state Ministry of Works, who preferred anonymity, said, “The current administration believes in action, His Excellency is someone who matches action word with actions, I believe in no distant time,   most of these places will be evaluated with a view to developing them as well as improve the living standard of the inhabitants.”