By Okechukwu Onuegbu
15 communities under Ogbaru Local Government Area, Anambra State have sought governor Chukwuma Soludo's urgent help to fix their deplorable road conditions.
The communities in a open letter signed by the Labour Party Candidate for Ogbaru Federal Constituency, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene, stressed that approving rehabilitation work on the major road connecting the communities would help to ameliorate their sufferings.
It will be recalled that the major Onitsha-Ossomala-Ogwuikpele road suffered the ill-effects of last year's flooding, leaving it as a miasma of craters, gullies, broken culverts, bridges and collapsed portions.
Ogene, who represented Ogbaru Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives between 2011-2015, wondered why three months since the last floods receded, the people of Ogbaru have continued to suffer untold hardship commuting despite Soludo's promise to start work on roads immediately after rainfall.
"As it is, the rains are about to set in, heightening fears that no rehabilitation or remedial works would be carried out. In deed, in the unlikely event that work on the road does not commence urgently, the people of Ogbaru may have to suffer further hardship, as the road would become almost impassable given the current level of disrepair.
"Already, the first rainfall in Anambra State, which occurred on Sunday, January 29, 2023 has left the people apprehensive about what their fate would be when the raining season begins in earnest. Following last year's flood, houses, farmlands and other businesses in Ogbaru were swallowed by the horrendous flood, further subjecting to people to agony, abject poverty, hopelessness and dire straits.
"It is pathetic. It was a terrible sight in Ogbaru as a result of the flood disaster. The human and environmental conditions remain absolutely pathetic and requires urgent action from government in order to alleviate the sufferings of the despondent victims, most of whom lost all their belongings to the flood disaster.
"For a people who have had to endure eight years of absolute neglect by the last Administration, especially as it concerns its major road, perhaps, it would not be out of place to expect the Soludo Solution in getting the road fixed.
"As the acclaimed food basket of Anambra State, Ogbaru farmers have since gone back to the farms, but nonetheless weary that their efforts may yet go to waste, especially as there are fears that they may not be able to evacuate their produce after harvest, if the road is not fixed," Ogene said.