Anambra State flood victims have described how agonizing it was to watch their homes float down the river.
Thanks to the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, which has located them and is currently offering the victims free healthcare services, many of the victims of last year’s flood are starting to resume a normal life.
Umudi, an island on the River Niger between the commercial centre of Onitsha and Asaba, the capital of Delta State, is one of these neighborhoods.
Like other communities such as Nzam, Inoma, Aguleri Otu, Ogbeabo in Ogbaru, among others, Umudi can only be accessed by canoe.
The people living in Umudi see Onitsha from their makeshift houses, but the only access route to the city from the agrarian community is by canoe.
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There are no social amenities in that community and whatever they need, they ferry to Onitsha to look for it.
Their children also paddle canoe every day to Onitsha to attend school and they pray never to have any emergency health situation as there is no place to go to in the area.
During the 2022 flood, the entire Umudi camp was submerged and all the inhabitants had to relocate to Akpaka area of Onitsha, abandoning most of their household property. When the flood receded, they returned home to start life afresh.
The good thing, however, is that UNICEF was able to locate this community and the people are among those benefiting from the free medical care being provided by the world body for all the communities affected by the 2022 flood in Anambra State.
A visit to the Akpaka Primary Health Care Centre, where UNICEF is providing free healthcare services, showed that many residents of Umudi were among those receiving treatment under the guidance of Dr. Obianuju Okoye of the Anambra State Ministry of Health.
Mr. Chukwuemeka Okafor, a resident of Umudi, said he came for the healthcare service when he heard that UNICEF was providing it free of charge.
โI came for the medical treatment because someone directed us to this place where a foreign organization is treating people free,โ he said.
Story adapted from Vanguard
