Residents of Gololo town in Gamawa Local Government Area of Bauchi State have cried out for help as flood ravages the town, sending many residents packing as the community is no longer habitable.
A victim of the flood in the town, Abdulrashid Shettima Gololo, told DAILY POST that the high volume of water wreaking havoc in the town came from neighbouring Yobe State, adding that the flood destroyed many houses and thousands of hectares of farmlands.
He said the intensity of the flood had not been witnessed in the town before now, claiming that for days, residents battled hard to prevent the flood from submerging the entire town.
“We have never witnessed such flood in Gololo. When we noticed the movement of the water from a long distance, we declared an emergency and summoned all the people of the town and began to dig a ditch to divert the water from flooding the town.
“We assembled all the youth in the Western part of the town and quickly sourced for hundreds of empty sacks and filled them with sand to block the entire town to save lives of the people because already water had submerged the surrounding vicinity,” Shettima Gololo told our correspondent.
He explained that while the people were trying to divert water from one part of the town, another location would break and flood the town, adding that this led to the destruction of some houses.
He said the only solution was for the government to come to the rescue of the people by constructing drainages all over the town to enable water flow easily.
Another resident of the town, Yakubu Gololo, disclosed that for many years, the town had experienced flood, until a former governor of the state, Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu made efforts to prevent it,
He said this was the first time the flood is coming back in such a manner since after that intervention.
Yakubu informed that the recent flood in the town rendered many homeless as it led to the destruction of many houses, farmlands and livestock.
He informed that as a result of the development, many people have left the town as they had nowhere to stay.
“The flood destroyed our houses and farms. The painful aspect of it is that many of us were about to harvest what we planted on the farms before the flood washed away many farmlands,” he lamented.
He informed that they were yet to get any form of assistance from the government, despite promises made to them to that effect.
On his part, the chairman of the Gololo Community Service, Abba Alhaji Gololo, told our reporter that he had not witnessed such calamity in the town, adding that despite the fact that it had not rained for two weeks now, the whole town was still flooded.
He then appealed to the state government to assist in constructing drainages in the town to enable the free flow of water whenever it rains.
“What we are appealing to the state government and other well-meaning people from the state and beyond is to assist the people of Gololo with the construction of drainage because drainage and culverts are the most pressing needs in Gololo to prevent future occurrence.
DAILY POST had on Saturday reported that the flood in the town led to the outbreak of cholera, which had reportedly killed 20 people died, and 190 others infected.
The Executive Chairman, Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BSPHCDA), Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, had denied this, saying only five persons were infected and that nobody died of the disease in the town.
Gololo residents cry for help as flood sacks community, destroys farmlands
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