By: Nana Ama Omari
Residents of North Tongu, South Tongu and Central Tongu, in the Volta Region, have called on the government to find a lasting solution to the kind of devastation the areas go through any time the Akosombo and Kpong dams are spilled.
To the people, any kind of help from the government will preserve their livelihoods.
Currently, communities around the dams are experiencing flooding as a result of intensified spillage from the Akosombo dam in recent days, following consistent rise of water level upstream due to heavy rains.
The spillage has led to devastating flooding in many fishing communities with cages containing large quantities of fishes swept away.
Hundreds of residents have been displaced, with some resorts submerged.
The Volta River Authority, VRA and the National Disater Management Organisation, NADMO on October,11, 2023, presented essential relief items to the people to ease their plight, as a result of the intensified spill rate.
The items which included boxes of bar soap, mosquito coil, cooking oil, mattresses, blankets, buckets, bags of rice and safety jackets were presented by the VRA’s Deputy Chief Executive in Charge of Services Ing. Ken Arthur and received by the Director General of NADMO Eric Nana Agyemang Prempeh on behalf of the affected communities at the district office in Adidome in the Volta region.
When GBC News engaged the VRA Chief Executive, Emmanuel Antwi Darkwa, about how effective the distributions will be, he said VRA officials are on the ground coordinating with NADMO officials to monitor the distributions.
But a visit to some of the affected communities in the Tongu areas, on October,11, 2023, revealed that some people were yet to be evacuated with most of their property destroyed. While some chiefs were furious with officials for failing to help evacuate their people on time, others were yet to receive relief items.
Speaking to GBC News, the residents said they have lost everything and have to start life afresh. The residents voiced their frustration to the news team after a media tour organized to the areas by the VRA and NADMO.
They shared their concerns about the occasional spillage and the accompanying trauma.
“We are devastated, schools have been cut off, therefore schoolchildren are unable to attend school. We want government officials to come to our aid and curtail the situation. This is the worst flood we have ever experienced.
“We were brought here by canoes. Our buildings have been submerged and property destroyed. They are now making provisions to send us relief items and get us places to lay our heads.”
“So far no casualty has been recorded in my community but all the mud houses have collapsed. We are also to be blamed for our plight because we were cautioned to move to higher grounds but some of us did not take it seriously. At times humans do not heed to caution until something happens then it becomes too late to salvage the situation” some residents noted.
The Central Tongu District Chief Executive, Thomas Moore Zonyrah, assured the residents of the assembly’s resolve to evacuate everyone to safety and appealed to residents within the catchment area of the Akosombo Dam to move to higher grounds.
“Communities we could not evacuate have been provided with canoes to enable them to cross over to neighboring towns. We cannot ask the people to completely leave the communities but going forward the Physical Planning Department must vigorously step in and ensure that people put up proper buildings, in appropriate ways and at right locations” he indicated.
The MP for Central Tongu, Alexander Hottordze, urged the government to tackle the issue vigorously to secure livelihoods.
“We were told that this incident occurred in 1963 and 60 years down the line it has reoccurred. This is an indication that we need to take these things seriously, but we cannot do it alone. We appeal to the government, benevolent organisations and NGOs to come to our aid. This is a national disaster not an institutional one” he said.
