Deputy Director General for the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Seji Saji Amedonu, has revealed that a team of experts from the UN’s Inter-Agency Working Group, in collaboration with his outfit and other state agencies, will carry out a crucial assessment to ascertain the scope of contamination across flood-hit settlements.
According to him, the team of experts from the UN Inter-Agency Working Group and other state agencies, is expected to arrive in Mepe, in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region on Tuesday, November 7, to commence an in-depth assessment of the scope of contamination caused by the flood disaster following the spillage of the Akosombo Dam.
He iterated that there is the need to undertake an assessment to ascertain the extent of the contamination. Following this, he stated that proposed solutions as to how to disinfect, fumigate, and decontaminate will be conducted as well.
“We have the UN Inter-Agency Group on Emergencies helping with this. We’re working with all stakeholders, including the EPA, the Ghana Institute of Engineers, the VRA, and NADMO. They will be moving in on Tuesday, November 7th, 2023, to start this assessment, and they have about three days to complete their work. By the weekend, some solutions will be proposed.”
Seji Saji Amedonu
Furthermore, Mr Amedonu highlighted that considering the “total inundation of some communities”, it is only prudent to carry out the assessment. He elaborated that water from the Volta River entered the communities, washed pit latrines, and even some cemeteries were flooded.
“We don’t know what level of contamination that water that remained in people’s homes for about two weeks caused; we don’t know the extent of the contamination.”
Seji Saji Amedonu
Intervention programs for displaced persons
Considering the extent of damage due to the weeks of flood disaster that affected 39,333 Ghanaians in 192 communities, the NADMO deputy director general noted that the disaster has now entered a stage where his outfit is doing all within its power through interventions such as assessment and fumigation to return life to normal.
“We are at the recovery stage. At the recovery stage, what we normally do is to try to restore back to normal, I mean, services and other things that were disrupted as a result of the disaster.”
Seji Saji Amedonu
Moreover, Mr Amedonu underscored interventions such as digging trenches to channel stagnant floodwaters out of the community as measures being taken by NADMO to bring normalcy to affected communities.
Meanwhile, member of parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has supervised a mop-up in displaced camps following donations and relief items sent to the affected communities.
He revealed that as the most affected constituency in the country with as many as 21 displaced camps and 12,633 displaced persons per official NADMO statistics, his team is determined in ensuring that no relief item lies idle while people suffer.
“I supervised a mop up exercise in our displaced camps with the objective of handing out new mattresses to VRA-induced flood victims who may not have benefited from our earlier mattress distributions. It was a terribly traumatizing night for me — no human being deserves to live in classrooms, particularly after losing everything they have toiled for all their lives. I shall not relent in seeking Justice for my devastated constituents.”
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Following the spillage, a total of 192 communities were inundated with floods for weeks, posing major health hazards to residents. Even though floodwaters have receded significantly, NADMO maintains that there is a need for a thorough assessment before allowing flood victims back to their homes.
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