By Francis Tim Mbom
Secondary Education Minister, Nalova Lyonga, has offered FCFA 10 million to support victims of floods and landslides that rocked Limbe last week.
She was in coastal city today to console victims of two landslides that killed four people last week, as well as visit the PMI hospital at Down Beach, which suffered heavy floods.
She handed the envelope to the Second Deputy City Mayor of Limbe, Emmanuel Kontchou. The Minister has also promised 50 mattresses to the PMI Maternity Hospital, and she said the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Njie, shall bring the mattresses.
The Director of the PMI hospital said the water level this year was unprecedented. Water streamed into the hospital and got right to the beds, soaking mattresses and beddings.
Staffs all erupted with joy when Minister Nalova announced her decision to assist with some mattresses and some money.
The Minister made the announcement after visiting the affected Hospital at Down Beach, the landslide area up the hill at Motowoh and the Cassava Farms area.
She cautioned everyone to take all precautionary measures because, “we don’t want any more deaths. We have already had enough of the deaths”.
She was accompanied to Limbe by the Secretary General at the Southwest Governor’s office, Gilbert Acha Nkwenti.
She said she had been moved by the fact that she, herself, is a Limbe resident. She said, being a Limbe resident, she feels so much for those who have lost loved ones or their houses. But she advised that people must not insist to continue living on risky areas and called on the residents of these areas to be ready to evacuate to prevent future disaster.
She also admonished them to avoid throwing household refuse along water ways, which is one of the causes of the floods.
She also called for municipal authorities to do everything possible to look for alternative areas where those in these areas can be resettled.
Her recommendation for the authorities to look for safer areas was in line with the same recommendation that the Governor made to the SDO, the Delegate of Lands and Surveys for the Southwest and the Limbe City Mayor.