The flood that washed away Kunchi town

The flood disaster followed a heavy downpour in the area which submerged hundreds acres of farmland and houses in the communities. Affecting Kunchi Local Government Area and some parts of Kazaure in Jigawa State, the flood has washed away over 809 farmland and destroyed a lot of houses. Investigation by Pyramid Trust revealed that the […]

The flood disaster followed a heavy downpour in the area which submerged hundreds acres of farmland and houses in the communities. Affecting Kunchi Local Government Area and some parts of Kazaure in Jigawa State, the flood has washed away over 809 farmland and destroyed a lot of houses. Investigation by Pyramid Trust revealed that the flood was one of the worst disasters the communities had ever experienced. The communities affected in Kunchi Local Government include Kunchi town, Du’u, Goburawa, Santarawa, Ridawa, Galadimawa and Nawala.

Reports gathered by Pyramid Trust said the flood was as a result of blockage of a tributary to Gari dam, which makes the Rafin Gulbi stream over flow to farmland within the area. This occurred after a heavy down pour. A staff of Kunchi Local Government council Malan Zakariya’u told Pyramid Trust how he had lost everything he planted on his farm land to the flood. “Before this disaster I was expecting a bumper harvest from my farms this rainy season, I have even asked a friend to find a fairly used car for me, because I had planned to give transport business a try, and now I have nothing left, just flooded lands. I have three farm lands out of which two were seriously damaged. I do not know what to do; I am appealing to authorities concerned to please come to our assistance, our plight, we believe is only the federal government that can assist us.”  He lamented.    

According to representative of the ward head of Kunchi Town Malan Muhammad Lawan, during an interactive session on the damages done by the flood in his community, he said it was not the first time for the community to experience such damages caused by floods stressing that the communities have been having the problem for long, only that this year’s flood disaster was worse than any of the disasters experienced in the community previously. “This year’s flood disaster is different from what we have been experiencing, to us it is not a new thing, and our worries are the extent of the damages experienced. Clearly the gravity of the damages is beyond comprehension.The last time we had such disaster was ten years back , ever since we did not record any disaster of such magnitude until this year,” he said. He added “The flood which occurred as a result of a heavy down pour affected almost every individual in my community. Either your house is affected or your farm land, in my community alone over 700 houses were affected by the heavy downpour and over 450 farm lands were washed away by the flood, this is from the information gathered as a result of complains brought before us.” When asked whether the estimate of damages had been quantified, he said, “We cannot ascertain the value of the damages for now, because we have not finished receiving complains yet.”

  However, the representative of the ward head further stated that, they did not lodge any request for assistance to the local government authorities, saying they had done it before on several occasions when such incident occurred but nothing had ever being done to them. “We are tired of empty promises, so we never bothered with lodging any complain to the council, because even if we do ,we believe nothing is going to be done about it. This is because previously we have lodged complains upon complains on similar issues yet what we always receive was empty promises. So we feel there is definitely no need to lodge any complain anymore to the council. We did what we could and leave the rest to God. Though ,I want to use this opportunity to plead with the Federal Government of Nigeria to please come to our aid.

The gravity of the damages caused to farm lands by the flood differs between communities depending on the community’s closeness to the stream. However, some victims that Pyramid Trust talked to, attribute the flood that destroyed the farm lands to the blockage of Gari dam. Abdu Bala Galadimawa is a victim whose only farm land was washed away by the flood said, “I have lost my only farm land to the flood, though nothing happened to my house but my life is at stake; I don’t think I will get a single mudu from my farm. I wonder how I will survive without my farm produce this year”. He added that government had  to help them, emphasising that they did  not have any hope apart from that of having the government to look into their  plight and assist them  as the flood had  destroyed their farm lands as a result of the faulty dam. However, he explained that it was the heavy downpour that damaged their houses not the flood. And that the flood was at the farm lands not within the town

The ward head of Dumbule ,another community affected by the flood and the heavy downpour Malam Adamu Ibrahim whose son Musa Adamu spoke to Pyramid Trust on his behalf said, many people lost all what they had planted, and now that the rainy season has almost come to an end the people were confused, not knowing what to do. He said over 230 farm lands were destroy by the flood and unknown number of houses were affected by the heavy downpour. “Some of us lost our maize plantation to the flood, some lost their rice plantation and some lost either corn plantation or other plantations. We are a community whose sole source of livelihood is farming, and with this flood we are rendered hopeless,” he said.

The Kunchi Local Government Secretary Alhaji Abdullahi K.K who spoke to Pyramid Trust on phone said, the council was currently doing its best to ascertain the level of damages done by the flood and to also have an up to date record of victims so as to have a distinctive vision of the whole issue and also to devise a measure via which the council would render its assistance. He said, “Kunchi council in its own capacity is doing its best to see that the level of damages is been quantified and also the number of people affected is being recorded. Currently the council has been gathering these data. These data will help the council to render assistance at its on capacity. And it will also assist the council in writing a vivid report to the State Emergency Relief Agency (SERA) for the state assistance.” The secretary also called on the communities affected to bear with the council, as assistance from the council would soon reach them. “The good people of Kunchi should bear with the council authority; because the council is doing all that it could to see that assistance is given to the victims of the recent flood disaster and the heavy downpour.”