Residents of Efut Efio Ene, a riverside settlement in Calabar, have stopped looking at the sky with hope. For them, dark clouds now signal danger, and every heavy downpour carries the threat of more lives lost.
The community, which has already been hit by flooding, says the situation is urgent. People are not waiting for the next disaster to speak up. They are crying out now, warning that without intervention, the next rainfall could prove fatal.
Cross River State sits in a region where heavy seasonal rains are a fact of life. For communities built close to waterways, that reality has always come with risk. But for Efut Efio Ene, the risk has reached a point where residents feel they are simply waiting for the worst to happen again.
What this community needs is not sympathy. It is action, and it needs to come before the next storm rolls in.
Originally published by AllAfrica.