It has not only left several people homeless, destroyed properties and disrupted business activities, the floods ravaging communities bordering Ogun and Lagos states are also threatening to expose residents to an impending cholera, diarrhoea, malaria, skin infections and other water-borne diseases epidemic.
Communities around Isheri, Ojodu/Berger, Odogun, Ajegunle,Agliti Ikorodu, Ketu, Akute, Maidan, among others, have been devastated by floods in the past one week. Many of the houses in these areas are surrounded by foul-smelling, mosquito and snake-infested expanse of water, yet occupants still live despite the inevitable health hazards.
To go through Mokore village, one of the communities at Warewa, Ogun State that has been displaced by the floods, is not for the lilly-livered. Our correspondents had to join a canoe that ferried them from Warewa to the village. The whole area is submerged under deep filthy waters. Most of the houses have been overtaken by the floods even to the window level leaving the occupants with no choice than to relocate to the upland area of the community.
While our correspondents were queuing to enter the canoe, one of the villagers shouted, “Snake!Snake!” A large white-spiting venom water snake was later killed and dragged out of the pool of dirty water by the villagers.
Intending passengers simply refused to go through the water for fear of being bitten by snakes and other unknown reptiles. The residents of the area said that since the floods started a lot of reptiles including snakes, frogs and poisonous toads were killed on a daily basis.
On hearing that journalists were visiting the area, the Chairman of the Landlords Association of the area, Mr.Tajudeen Odukoya, said it was high time the public knew the plight of the affected communities.
“We have been waiting for you journalists may be you can help us tell our own story. You can see how we live in fear every day, not only have we lost our properties and sources of living but we are also scared of death.”
The flood victims said although commercial canoeists have been counting their gains since the floods started, others have been battling with several health challenges since the floods started sometimes last week.
Odukoya said that ever since the floods started it had been difficult getting across to their homes, in order to salvage their properties since most of the canoes were not strong and could capsize.
Odukoya, an engineer who works in the Omole area in Lagos, said he had not been able to get out of the area since the floods started because he was scared of falling into the water.
” A canoe ride here is like passing through fire, the canoes are not strong. Many women and children have fallen into the water while they were trying to get to their places of work,” he said.
Four year-old Titilayo Akanimode and three -year old Philip Ayantoye, although not too coherent would not forget their drowning experience last week Wednesday when they fell into floods while in a canoe on their way to school.
According to Ayantoye‘s mother, Wunmi, who was one of the six passengers that fell on the canoe ride, she forced the children to go to school after they had been stuck in the house for a week. She did not want them to miss more classes, so she decided to accompany her four children to school on the boat ride .
” I decided to take them to school after they had missed a week’ lesson, as we were going the tide of the water was so heavy, the canoe capsized and all of us fell into the water, although the elderly ones were able to stay afloat, the younger ones started sinking.
“Fortunately our shouts attracted the other canoeists, who swam to rescue them. By the time we brought them ashore, they had drunk large quantity of dirty water which they were not even able to spit out on their own.”
To worsen the situation, the only community hospital, Warewa Maternity Hospital has been taken over by the flood, so the children could not even access treatment there.
According to her, Titilayo the youngest of the victims contacted diarrhoea due to the accident.
This has forced the largely poor people to resort to seeking medical attention in costly private clinics in Lagos. Ayantoye said that apart from Titilayo, she also had developed skin rashes since the floods started.
Another resident, Mrs. Adefunke Osibanwo, a business woman said that she would rather remain an hostage in her home than wade through the water.
Speaking on the condition of the water, Osibanwo said it was hard getting potable water to use for their daily activities.
Osibanwo took our correspondents to the well beside her house and drew brown-coloured water from the well, saying that since they had no cheap alternative, they used the water to bath, cook and wash things in the house.
Sachet water popularly called ”pure water” is the cheapest source of potable water in the neighbourhood. It sold for N100 a bag before the floods, but now goes for N300.
“The floods have polluted our wells and the borehole. Ever since the floods started, lack of water is one of our major worries in this area. Drinking water from any of the wells here is tantamount to committing suicide.
“How many people can afford to use bags of sachet water to cook and bath in the area? Most people actually drink and cook with the well water, while some others bath openly in the flooded water. Not only have we lost our properties, houses and farmlands, we have also been exploited by traders because we have being neglected by the government,” Osibanwo said.
A shop owner in the area, Mrs. Chima Okereke, said the increment was due to the cost of boarding canoes to transport her goods.
Okereke said, “All the things I’m selling I have to transport them across the floods. Each canoe ride cost as much as N200 per trip. All this I have to add to the cost of the goods,” she added
Osibanwo said it was quite worrisome that in spite of the level of hardship the community was facing in getting clean water to use, the Ogun State government was yet to send any form of relief to the area.
Odukoya noted that government officials could not visit the affected communities because of fear.
“They are yet to visit because they cannot risk their lives by falling into the smelly flood water which can give them typhoid.
“We are pleading with the state government to come to our aid. We do not have clean water, people have lost their homes. People have started coming down with malaria, diarrhoea and skin infections. When they fall ill we still have to take them to hospitals crossing the floods, because our only hospital is already submerged,” he said.
Meanwhile, medical experts have warned that if residents are not evacuated from the affected areas, cholera, typhoid, skin and diarrhoea infection would increase due to contaminated water.
The Chief Medical Director, Lord West Medical Centre, Surulere, Lagos, Dr. Ibrahim Olaifa, said that when a natural disaster happens in other countries, a responsible government would think of providing four basic essentials, namely food, shelter, clean water and medical assistance.
“So, they need to be evacuated from those water-logged communities to a resettlement camp. They also need to be vaccinated quickly against typhoid and cholera. “That is the first intervention.
“The sewage sites in most houses that are now submerged in the floods would have burst into the floods, there would be a lot of faecal deposits in the water. This would definitely doubled their risks of cholera and typhoid infections,” he said.
He said in addition to the provision of makeshift camps, relief materials like food, shelter and clothing, government should also decongest the floods by channelling them through alternative routes.
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