News : Tears as Cholera outbreak causes panic in Rivers community

 

As chairman leads medical team to council, sues for calm

There was panic in Bille Kingdom, Degema Council of Rivers State, yesterday, over suspected outbreak of Cholera. The Guardian learnt that residents of the community, who rely on the river as the major source of potable water, were already showing symptoms of Cholera like vomiting and stooling in the past one week.

Worried by the development, Chairman of Degema Council, Michael Williams, led a team of medical personnel to the area to ascertain the true position of things.

In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the chairman, Daerefa-a Braide, the visit was in response to the Cholera outbreak and other waterborne diseases threatening the community.

Williams, who visited the Amanyanabo of Bille Kingdom, HRH King Igbikingeri Ngowari Cornelius Herbert, requested for the true situation of the outbreak in the area to enable the council to address it immediately, to which the monarch obliged.

He said Governor Nyesom Wike had directed the Ministry of Health and other relevant agencies to respond to the health crisis and bring it under control.

He pledged that the council would give necessary support to health sector workers to ensure that the challenge did not reoccur. Williams, who assured that the state government and the council would restore normalcy in Bille, commended the people for making good use of the surveillance boats procured by his administration to secure the waterways.

Herbert also commended the state government for its swift response to the outbreak of the disease through the Ministry of Health and appealed for more drugs to be sent to the area.

He noted that the ones earlier sent were effective in containing the spread of the disease and urged the government to build a bigger water treatment plant for Bille Kingdom, as the old one was small and slow.

Herbert also appealed to Williams to support the Bille security architecture by taking over its logistics, as the kingdom could no longer handle the responsibility alone.

“We are the first to feel the impact of the council chairman, through the provision of fully equipped surveillance boats to tackle pirate attacks along the Bille-Port Harcourt Waterways, but we need more support,” he said.