(ERGO) – Sahro Abdikadir Kulmiye has been camping with her nine children in a waterlogged school hall for several weeks since abandoning her house due to severe river flooding in Beletweyne.
They left their house in Shareeco IDP camp near the river bank in Beletweyne on 12 November as flooding was imminent and went to Al-Qaida school in Bundaweyne seeking shelter in this area of relatively higher ground.
However, the floods spread to Bundaweyne and by 25 November the school was also awash with water.
The little food that Sahro had managed to carry with her from their house has all but gone.
“We don’t have food. Our neighbours cross the floodwater to get to the city and come back with food and we take our bowls to get a share from whatever they cook. My and I are husband divorced and I don’t get anything from my former husband. I’m also sick with a cancer tumour, and I’m faced with many hardships here now,” she said.
She built three wooden beds mounted above the water in the school hall for herself and the children, aged between nine months and 11 years. She constantly has to watch the younger ones as they perch rather perilously above the murky water below.
“My daughter fell into the water a few days ago. The children need to be guarded on the bed. A young boy who was swimming in the water saved her. I had been trying to dry the clothes on the line and she followed me noticing. She slipped under the water and drank a lot of it, we tried to press her belly and she vomited it out, but she is still sick now,” Sahro told Radio Ergo.
There is no healthcare facility near the school as the whole area has been deserted due to the floods. Some of her children are sick and coughing badly. They have all be drinking the floodwater as there is no alternative.
Sahro’s tumour makes her scared to try wading through the often neck-deep water that surrounds the school so she has not managed to go out to seek help.
This is the fourth time recently that she has brought her family to shelter in the school from floods near their house by the river. The last time was in May. This year the torrential rains have led to extended flooding, cutting off Bundaweyn, Koshin, and Howl-wadag neighbourhoods where people used to move to avoid flooding in other parts of the city.
Many residents in these areas have been badly affected.
Bundaweyn resident, Abdikadir Hassan Dhoore, has been out of work for three months as construction sites have all been closed by the flooding in the city.
“We don’t have any food. We have to swim our way through the floods to get to the city. I don’t have even a scoop of rice left at home. I come back home with whatever I can get. I take loans to get one meal. All our belongings were washed away in the floods,” he complained.
Abdikadir’s two-room house has been flooded and he and his wife and their 10 children aged two to 15 years have to sit or sleep on their beds keeping their feet out of the water.
He says this is the worst flooding he has experienced in the past 10 years. His neighborhood used to be a safe place where others escaping the floods would come to shelter.
Most of his neighbours have relocated further to the outskirts of the city.
“The people who had some money have migrated to higher ground. I couldn’t get money to migrate, the vehicles asked $50 to help us relocate, and I can’t afford that. That is why we are still here,” he said.
Abdikadir and his wife spend their time protecting their younger children from the floodwater that surround them. With a power outage caused by the floods, the situation is even worse at night.
They too have had to resort to drinking flood water in the absence of other sources of clean water.
Beledweyne’s Commissioner, Omar Osman Alasow, said that most families moved from their homes in these areas when they received the extended flood warnings. Those remaining were already living on higher ground that was assumed to be less likely to flood.
“We advise these people to migrate if they can. We thank God since there are people leaving everyday using boats. For those who are unable to go, we plan to start giving them food aid from the aid organisations. There are many people who have never been hit by floods in the past although this year the floods have not spared anyone,” he said.
