Member of parliament for Ketu North, James Klutse Avedzi, has called on government to compensate victims adversely impacted by the Akosombo dam spillage.
According to him, authorities must accept that “VRA has made a mistake” and delayed the spillage, which has led to such grievous devastation. He revealed that the spillage should have been “staggered” to avert the damage to communities currently being witnessed.
Nonetheless, Mr Avedzi noted that because VRA needed to save the integrity of the dam, it was a necessary evil, although it’s affecting the people at the lower portion of the Volta.
“Definitely, this is a disaster, we all know whether it is caused by the negligence of somebody or by natural, it is a disaster the victims definitely must be compensated. They have lost all their properties, their belongings, some houses have been affected. So definitely, government must have a package for the people who have been affected.
“So, if compensation is something on the demand, I fully support that because you cannot work throughout your life, and within a day or two, you lose everything as a result of the spillage… So, definitely, that mistake which has affected people must be compensated by the government.”
James Klutse Avedzi
Compensations and other interventions for flood victims
Regarding the form of compensation needed, Mr Avedzi stated that arrangements must be made for persons who “lost houses, must regain back their houses”. To this end, he called on government to put together a package “because it’s not everybody who was affected on the same level”.
“… There were people who were more affected than the others… So, there needs to be some form of assessment, after the assessment, we’ll know each of the victims and what form of compensation they should receive, but definitely, the compensation will not be the same for everybody…”
James Klutse Avedzi
Moreover, the Ketu North legislator emphasized the need for parliament to equally play its role in fast-tracking matters regarding compensations to victims. He explained that parliament in its own way, can expedite the outcome of such a matter when brought before it by government.
“If there’ll be the need for parliament to approve some facility, as soon as government brings that facility to parliament, we will be willing to approve that one in order for government to be able to provide the needed package for the people.”
James Klutse Avedzi
On his part, the Volta regional secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), James Gunu, revealed that among other things, the NDC has donated 500 boxes of cooking oil, 500 boxes of tinned fish, 1,000 packs of Voltic mineral water to affected persons.
He highlighted that distributions would take place based on the level of devastation.
“The three Tongus are most affected so far, then we have the Anlo side, Keta and Ketu South. The fact of the matter is that for them, they were recently hit by the tidal waves when His Excellency John Mahama sent some relief items there, and some people moved from the coast to this side that has been hit currently by the spillage of the dam.
“So, we factored all these, and did the distribution based on the numbers of houses and people that believe that this will go a long way to at least, alleviate the suffering of our people.”
James Gunu
Moreover, Mr Gunu called on government to further support affected communities and persons. He noted that the level of devastation that has taken place must be addressed.
“Many of them are kept in classrooms, camps and other places… There should be compensation package prepared for these people.”
James Gunu
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