—Bomadi General Hospital, St. Brendan College, other govt facilities at stake
—-Bishop Egbebo, community leaders appeal to govt for urgent attention
Coastal Erosion of great magnitude has affected the waterfront of Bomadi General Hospital, Bomadi town, headquarters of Bomadi local government area of Delta state.
Our Correspondent reports that hospital staff, patients and commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as Okada riders were afraid of being victims of the river monster.
It was also gathered that years back it also struck the water front but with lesser magnitudes.
In an on-the-spot assessment of the incident by our reporter, it’s apparent that if urgent measures are not taken to arrest the situation, the hospital facility, staff and patients will be victims of this phenomenon anytime in the day or night, especially in this season of rains and the rising coastal flood.
However a worker in the hospital, who pleaded anonymity for fear of being queried by higher authorities, said that both the hospital staff and patients are living in fear of the dreadful incident, most especially in the night hours when there is heavy rainfall.
“See, nobody can tell what will happen tomorrow regarding this encroachment from the river as you can see for yourself. We are living in fear, praying for urgent attention from government to remedy this situation”, she said.
The bishop, Catholic Diocese of Bomadi, Most Rev. Hyacinth Egbebo, speaking on the incident, said: “The hospital facility, workers, patients and all other facilities in the area are at stake. As you can see, nobody is driving on that part of the road and it’s unfortunate that it’s just besides the only hospital we have, which is not so fully functional but at least attending to the medical needs of the people here. Now, it is impossible to take a sick person in a car to that place.”
“This situation portends that when the hospital goes into the river, the rest of the community will go as well because next to the hospital is the local government council secretariat, and next to the hospital on the other side is the only award-winning school, St. Brendan College and next to St. Brendan College is the Catholic Church Cathedral. So, it is as crucially important as that, and that means if these facilities go into the river, the rest of the community is also at stake.
“I made an appeal to former Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa to give attention to the situation then, and which did not capture government attention till now.
“So, we will be very grateful if this new administration will give some kind of meaningful attention that will help save the situation. Moreover, to save the facilities would mean just pinning poles to the river and dredge into the spot. It will cost quite an amount of money but it’s worth doing, otherwise something worst will happen to this community”.
Former councilor, Bomadi Legislative Assembly, Hon. Zipamor Ofiya, on his part appealed to the governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, to intervene before it’s too late.
He said: “I am calling on Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori to intervene before it is too late because the coastal flood is rising coupled with the increasing rainfall that will worsen the situation”.
However, the leadership of Bomadi community speaking through the community vice chairman, Mr Demeateide Clement, equally appealed to the state government to come to their aid without any further delay.
“This situation calls for emergency. It is getting worse, especially when there is rainfall. The flood is rising as well. We are begging the state government to please come to our aid, we’re begging the government to come and help us fix the road as this is the only facility giving medical attention to all communities in the creeks”, he said.
