VANGUARD

Secretary to the Delta State Government, SSG, Mr Chiedu Ebie, said the State has in four weeks recorded 18,000 persons at the Internally Displaced Persons, IDP camps displaced by flood,

Lamenting the increasing number of flood victims at the camps, he urged well-meaning individuals and organizations to assist the victims.

Ebie, who is the Chairman, State Flood, Risk Alert, and Management Committee who spoke to newsmen after a tour of six out of the 11 established IDP camps in the state, expressed fear that the number would rise more than the current figure.

Saying that state government was doing all within its power to manage the situation within its limited resources, he said no support would too small from those that are willing to support government in managing the situation in the camps.

Ebie said: “We are here to see that the template set by the committee is working and to find out how the camp commandants are coping.

“We have a total of 11 camps, as at Tuesday, we recorded over 18,000 IDPs and as you can see from the six camps we have visited today, the number of displaced persons in the camps are over 10, 000 persons

“In Patani IDP camp is 5,228 persons, in Emede camp is 2,842, in Alaka, we have 2,756; Ashaka is 1,686, Utagba-Ogbe is 1,650 and in Ewulu the number is 1,772 persons.

“But in total, we have over 18,000 in just about four weeks which is more than what we had last year of about 10,000 IDPs in four weeks, in Emede-Ozoro for instance last year it was about 1, 500 but now it is over 2,000 persons.

“I think everything is okay except for one camp, the camps are well organized, levels of hygiene is high. “The only problem we seem to have is that the numbers of persons in the camps are really high this year compared and above our projection but we have to deal with that.

“This is a source of concern to us in terms of the expansion in the number of persons in the camp. “The state government most definitely will need support but in the interim, as a state, we are proactive in putting up camps immediately we got a notification from NiMet.

“We got donations from a few individuals and few organizations and of cause. “Last year, the Vice President came to inspect one of the IDP camps in Asaba, so, we look forward to receiving support from the Federal Government in term of relief materials”.

Ebie said the need to set up permanent camps have been discussed at the State Executive Council meeting which was receiving attention because flooding has become a reoccurrence issue.

He said that for those impacted communities who wish to weather the storm by not coming to the camps, the state government has also sent relief materials to them like in Burutu and Bomadi among others.

He said that the government did electronic capturing of the flood victims before admitting them and that data database and profiles of campers for the year were intact.

The camps visited were Patani IDP Camp in Patani Local Government Area, Emede Camp in Isoko South Local Government Area, Alaka (Ozoro) in Isoko North Local Government Area, Ashaka Camp in Ndokwa East Local Government Area, Utagba-Ogbe Camp in Ndokwa West Local Government Area and Ewulu in Aniocha South Local Government Area.