NDDC provides palliatives for flood victims in Rivers

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has provided maternal delivery kits and cholera vaccines as palliatives for flood-ravaged communities in Ahoada West Local Council of Rivers State.

The NDDC Acting Managing Director, Dr. Joi Nunieh, while distributing the medical kits and cholera vaccination at the Akinima Primary Health Centre, said the initiative was intended to ensure good healthcare for communities in the Niger Delta region, saying: “We are aware that most communities in Ahoada West Local Council have been submerged by floods that have caused so much physical devastation, psychological trauma and financial loss.”

Nunieh explained that the commission was concerned by the pains of the Internally-Displaced Persons who were exposed to poor hygiene and increased risk of disease outbreaks.

She said commission had to intervene urgently by providing cholera vaccines for residents of the flooded communities, as well as supplying maternal delivery kits to curb child and maternal deaths.

“The potential for huge outbreaks of cholera and spread of epidemic proportions in these flooded locations is real, hence the need for an urgent intervention to prevent or at least minimise such occurrences that can cost lives,” she said.

She explained that the NDDC Interim Management Committee was determined to give priority to the development of rural communities and collaborate with state governments and Community Development Committees (CDCs).

The NDDC Acting Managing Director, who visited some of the displaced persons camped at the Primary Healthcare Centre and the Local Government Secretariat in Akinima, expressed displeasure with the lack of basic amenities and poor feeding arrangements for the flood victims.

She said that the NDDC would liaise with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to provide the needed relief materials to ameliorate the sufferings of the people.

“We saw a new born baby and the mother in the camp at the Primary Health Centre who had not been able to return to their home because of the flood. We observed that some of the flood victims were sleeping on the bare floor. We must do something immediately to reduce their pains. We will send mattresses and foodstuff to complement the medical supplies delivered today.”

Also, Chairman of Ahoada West Local Council, Hope Ikiriko, said his people were in grief following the devastating flood that rendered many families homeless and exposed them to all kinds of water-borne diseases.

Ikiriko, who was represented by the Vice-Chairman of the council, Mrs. Obele Jack Roberts, said that apart from the Rivers State Government, the NDDC was the only agency that had responded to the cries of the people for assistance.

He appealed to the commission to also assist the council in re-constructing and equipping the dilapidated General Hospital in Joinkrama and the Model Health Centre in Okogbe.

Ikiriko assured the NDDC that the council would help to supervise the distribution of medical supplies provided for the displaced people by the commission.