BY: NANA AMA OMARI
The Volta River Authority in collaboration with Zoomlion have begun a disinfection and fumigation exercise at Mepe in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region, as flood waters from the controlled spillage of the Akosombo dam begin to recede.
The exercise seeks to create the necessary condition that will allow residents who wish to return to their homes when the situation completely stabilizes, to do so in a safe environment. This follows concerns that some displaced residents in temporary camps, may try to move back into their homes.
Briefing the media ahead of the exercise, North Tongu District Chief Executive, Divine Fenu, said officials are also conducting structural Integrity test on the buildings to ensure that they are in good condition for habitation.
He said the Mepe Development Association informed residents about the exercise urging them to comply with directives given by the assembly for a successful exercise.
After the fumigation wait for more inspection to be conducted on the buildings to ensure their durability before you move back. Until these things are done, let us remain calm at the camps to first of all protect lives before property, he noted.
The VRA Emergency Preparedness Plan Coordinator, Kwame Osei Mensah Darkwa, said an aerial view was conducted and areas where flood waters are subsiding were mapped out to determine the scope of the exercise.
We have identified areas that are dry but we noticed some ponded areas as well because the flood waters are still receding. We had places where toilet facilities, refuse dumps and cemetery were inundated by floods and we all know that these things have very harmful substances that can be toxic to humans. It is therefore important to spray the affected areas, ones the flood waters have begun to subside. Moreover, people are likely to go back to their homes even though it has not been officially announced, he indicated.
Vector Control Officer from Zoomlion, King Jonas Wonder, said the exercise will target households, surfaces and compounds to rid them of insects, parasites as well as reptiles.
Since the place has been contaminated for some time now, we have realized that most of the households have been polluted. Therefore, we have a chlorine and hydrogen peroxide base disinfectant that we will be using to do the disinfection, then we follow up with fumigation because some of the places have mosquitoes, he explained.
Meanwhile, some residents of Mepe in the North Tongu District of the Volta region, welcomed the initiative and expressed hope that the situation will end soon, so they can return home. Others, whose houses were destroyed were worried about resources to build new ones. They however appealed to government and other philanthropists to come to their aid.
VRA began spilling excess water from the Akosombo dam on September 15, 2023 due to high inflows into the dams, leaving some downstream communities flooded.