Flood submerges houses, shops, farms in FCT community

S everal houses, shops and farmlands have been submerged following a heavy downpour that triggered flooding in Sheda community, Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Abuja Metro gathered that the flooding followed a rainfall that began around 4.23am on Monday and continued into Tuesday morning in the community, located along the Abuja-Lokoja Highway. The flood affected residential buildings, shops, women’s cassava processing centres and farmlands. When our reporter visited the community shortly after the rainfall, several houses, shops and wooden structures, including cassava processing centres operated by women, had been overtaken by floodwaters. Many affected residents were seen wading through the water to salvage their belongings. One of the affected residents, Mrs Mary Danjuma, whose provision shop was flooded, expressed shock and sadness over the incident, saying some of her valuable property was damaged. She said she locked up her shop and went home on Monday night, only to wake up and discover that floodwaters had taken over the premises. Another resident, Mr Michael Ayuba, who was seen alongside members of his family evacuating water from his house, said he was shocked by the extent of the flooding. According to him, he woke up to discover that floodwaters had entered his home and damaged several household items, including mattresses, clothes and electronic gadgets. A cassava processor in the community, Mrs Rebecca Emmanuel, said a truckload of cassava she purchased in preparation for local akpu production was submerged by the flood. She explained that she bought a pickup van load of cassava for N175,000 from a farm on Sunday in anticipation of supplying buyers, but the heavy rainfall in the early hours of Monday ruined the produce. “I had to wade through the flood after the water level subsided before I could retrieve some of my equipment,” she said. He recalled that a similar incident occurred in June last year, when houses, shops and farmlands were also submerged. Dangana called on the government to construct proper drainage infrastructure to prevent annual flooding in the community. “I will advise the government to find a way of building proper drainage channels. The drainage system constructed during the dualisation of the Abuja-Lokoja Road was not properly done, and that is why whenever there is heavy rainfall, houses and shops close to the highway are prone to flooding,” he said. Similarly, some residential houses and farmlands were affected by floodwaters in Unguwar Bwanba, another community in the area council. During a visit to the area, our reporter observed residents evacuating their belongings from flooded homes, while groundnut, cassava and plantain farms remained submerged. Reacting to the development, a senior official in the Environmental Department of the council, Mr Lazarus Enoch, said the chairman had directed officials of the department to visit the affected communities and assess the extent of the damage. “And we actually visited the affected houses and other locations. We were able to document those affected on Monday evening, and our findings will be presented to the area council for necessary action,” he said.