Flooding: Ugbenu Community Sends SOS To Soludo For Urgent Intervention

People of Ugbenu Community in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State have called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo to intervene in tackling the root cause of flooding threatening lives and property in the area, particularly in Ugbenu-In which was recently cut off from Ugbenu-Out after flooding submerged the road linking the two parts of the community.

Ugbenu, an agrarian community, is made up of two units, Ugbenu-In and Ugbenu-Out, with four villages in each unit.

Narrating the ordeal of the people following the flooding of the road, the President-General of Ugbenu Town Union, Mr Ephraim Madu, said the flood nearly claimed lives before the intervention of some experts who worked to prevent casualties, and called for urgent government intervention to provide a permanent solution to the problem by properly channeling the floodwater and reconstructing the road.

Mr Madu commended Governor Chukwuma Soludo for the construction of the Amansea-Ebenebe-Ugbenu-Ugbene-Awba Ofemili Road, noting that the completed road can only be effectively accessed by the eight villages that make up Ugbenu if the connecting road linking Ugbenu-in and Ugbenu-out is constructed, and explained that the community’s major farmlands are located in Ugbenu-In, where the connecting road is currently in a deplorable condition.

On his part, the Secretary-General of the community, Comrade Francis Ekpone, described Ugbenu as one of the major food baskets of Anambra State, saying construction of the road by the state government would help improve food production and reduce food scarcity in the state.

Comrade Ekpone said residents of Ugbenu-In are often trapped whenever it rains, stressing that the problem cannot be resolved through community efforts alone, as the community spends over three million naira annually on the road without achieving a lasting solution, and called for government intervention.

For a former Secretary-General of Ugbenu Town Union, Chief Ambrose Ikwunyelu urgent intervention by the Soludo administration is needed to save life and property, and provide the agrarian community with access to evacuate farm produce to urban centres, thereby contributing to food sufficiency in the state.