Not less than twelve communities mostly in Etsako Central Local Government Area, Edo North Senatorial district have been submerged by flood as a result of torrential rain in the last few days that has resulted in the River Niger overflowing its banks.

Some of the communities mostly hit are Udaba-Ekphei, Anegbette, Ukpeko Orle, Ofukpo, Agbabu, Osomegbe, Udochi, Yelwa, Ake Island and Ifeku Islay.

Many of the residents had to flee because the water level in most of the communities is above the window level of their houses while those who managed to move around go in canoes as residents say this is the worst flood they have experienced since 2012 when they thought they had seen the worst. Churches, mosques, markets, and schools have all been taken over by flood.

Agricultural produce like rice, cassava, vegetables, potatoes, groundnuts and others have been completely submerged by the devastating floods.

The people are calling on federal, state and local governments to come to their aid before they start losing their lives due to the devastating effects of the flood.

An indigene of Udaba, Mr Isaac Omoaka said, “My village is completely submerged. Since I was born, I have never seen such a thing. This year’s flood is 10 times that of 2012.

“We have a prominent son who built schools, a hospital complete with a mortuary, laboratory, x-ray and several amenities all of them now are under the water.”

When contacted on Sunday, the Edo State Commissioner for Special Duties, Osasere Evboumwan said, “I was in Etsako Central last Friday with NEMA, SEMA, the Head of Local Government Administration, WHO and others.

“We are sending our report now to see how we can provide relief for them.

“Their farms have been taken over by water. It is a yearly flood and NEMA said the only solution to this is to dredge River Niger otherwise it will continue to occur.

“For the immediate solution, we are going to be supplying food to them, the Internally Displaced Persons’ centre in Ogomeri is dry with good facilities there but the people are reluctant to come there. We are preparing the IDP camp for them, there are mattresses there, there is a generator, fridge is there, the kitchen is there and we will beef up the medical centre.”