Kwara State has stated its resolve to help victims of flood by scaling up infrastructure in their communities.

Already, Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed has drawn out a list of rural roads to be built in communities that were flooded.

But as a way of preventing another flood, the governor has asked the Federal Government to establish the Hydro-electric Producing Areas Commission (HYPADEC), complete with a law backing it. If established, it is reckoned that the commission will help to manage the low-lying parts of the state better and prevent or mitigate such diasaters as flooding.

Worried by the extent of damage done to infrastructure by the disaster, the governor said that the state government plans to expend a large chunk of the N300m intervention fund approved for the state by the Federal Government on infrastructural development in the affected communities.

Kwara State, by its classification as a third-class in the index of the states ravaged by the flood, was given the sum of N300m by the Federal Government to cushion the effects of the natural disaster which swept across six local government areas of the state.

Specifically, the fund would be used for the construction of rural roads and electrification projects in the flood-ravaged communities.

It was gathered that rural roads that have been slated for construction in the flood-prone communities are Patigi-Esugi Ferry Road, Rogun-Koro Road, Patigi-Gbaradogi Road, Belle-Gbere Road, Kpatayiringi-Tada-Kusogi Road, Degeji-Gbajibo Road and Arrefunwe Street.

"The rural electrification projects," according to a government source "would be carried out in Moro, Edu and Patigi local government areas at the cost of N61m."

Some parts of Edu and Patigi local government areas have been in darkness since the disaster due to lack of transformers. It is therefore not surprising that government thought it wise to use part of the flood intervention fund to provide the much-needed electricity for the people of these councils."

Though, the state government had embarked on a large-scale rural road construction, spending over N2b in the process, it intends to use part of the flood intervention fund to construct more rural roads in the areas that have not been captured in the areas affected by flood in the northern axis of the state.

The floods had displaced over 12,000 people in Edu, Patigi, Moro, Kaiama, Baruteen and Ilorin East local government areas of the state, even as large expanse of farm lands were washed away.

During his recent visits to the affected communities, Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed had called for the removal of all bureaucratic and other bottlenecks hindering the take-off of the Hydro-electric Producing Areas Commission (HYPADEC) so that the pains of flood victims in the hydro-energy producing communities could be mitigated while impact of future flooding could be better managed.

Ahmed made the call at the palaces of Etsu Patigi, Alhaji Ibrahim Chatta Umar and Emir of Lafiagi, Alhaji Saidu Kawu Haliru, just as the two paramount rulers called for the take off of the dredging of the River Niger up to Jebba in Kwara State to reduce the devastating effects of flooding.

Ahmed, who presented relief materials procured from the over N340m Kwara State and Federal Government relief funds to the people of Patigi and Lafiagi in Patigi and Edu local government areas of the state, noted that the flood disaster has thrown up a lot of challenges as fishing, farmlands and other sources of livelihood for communities along the banks of River Niger and Kaduna were destroyed, adding that, "when the issue of HYPADEC was mentioned as a commission to be set up to take care of those communities, it was a very welcome development.

"We have since been looking forward to its full take off so that communities can begin to see that they are also put into consideration and feel a sense of belonging on issues affecting their livelihood."