Six weeks after floods ravaged parts of Katsina State, victims are still waiting for assistance from the state government, with the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) uncertain of the level of devastation.
A survey across 34 local government areas revealed that at least 30,000 people have been displaced in 18 areas, with over 7,000 houses, shops, and business premises destroyed. These include: Katsina, Kaita, Rimi, ?atagarawa, Charanchi, Kurfi, Dustinma, Mashi, Dutsi, Daura, Sandamu, ?aure, Matazu, ?anja, ?an?ara, Faskari and Jibia local government areas, (LGAs).
Survey further revealed that more than seven thousand houses, shops and other business premises have been destroyed by the disaster, particularly rural and sub-urban mud houses.
Thousands of farmlands across 15 LGAs were also submerged in the floods which washed away crops midway into the wet farming season. Despite early warnings from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMET), the State Emergency Management Agency, (SEMA), seems unprepared, with officials reluctant to speak on the level of devastation or measures to assist victims.
It was observed that most of the displaced flood victims in the affected local government areas were stranded, with most of them taking shelter in the houses of relatives and Good Samaritans in neighbouring communities.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency proved abortive, while officials of the agency were also reluctant to speak on the level of devastation or measures to assist the victims.
Sources at the agency revealed that the agency had not yet collated the number of lives lost, property destroyed, people displaced and farmlands affected by the disaster.
