District Chief Executive for Ellembelle, Kwasi Bonzo, has called for the relocation of persons who were affected by floods in some communities in the district.
According to him, on Sunday, two communities in the district, Adubiri and Akropong, were submerged in the rains. He indicated that they got flooded and a total of 180 homes got destroyed which affected a lot of families.
Mr Bonzo revealed that currently, there are close to a 1,000 displaced individuals in both communities.As such, he noted that, a team from NADMO and one led by him have been there to assess the impact of the flood.
The DCE stated that the impact has been very severe and some affected persons have ended up “sleeping in churches [and] in open spaces”.
“Meanwhile, the advice is that both communities should be relocated because this is the third time that this incident of flooding is happening within a space of twelve years. So, obviously, there’s a problem with the location of those communities. So, they’ve identified a new site where they want to be relocated but virtually it’s like a virgin area, which means we have to construct roads, we have to provide water, electricity…”
Kwasi Bonzo
In the interim, Mr Bonzo expressed that the assembly is working to provide some relief items today, to mitigate some of the hardships that the affected persons are going through. For both communities, he highlighted that the assembly will provide them with 100 bags of rice, 50 cartons of cooking oil, 300 pieces of mosquito nets and rubber buckets.
Additionally, he revealed that schools affected by the rainstorm which saw children losing their school uniform will be attended to. With this, he opined that the assembly has procured some school uniforms for the students and “we’ll try and get them some exercise books as well so that they can have some normal lives”.
Technical team assessing new site for relocation
Commenting on the cost of relocating the two communities, Mr Bonzo disclosed that it is the responsibility of government to ensure the relocation of these communities. He emphasized that the residents cannot continue to live in those communities as their lives are in danger should they decide to live there.
“These are very rural communities, so at the time they were settling there, they [lived in the high areas] but as the community grew, they had to go to the low areas which has put everybody’s lives at risk. So, as an assembly, we are expected to put forth the cost involved, which is definitely going to be beyond the budget of the assembly even for the year.”
Kwasi Bonzo
To expedite the process of relocation, Mr Bonzo indicated that the assembly sent a technical team on Tuesday and Wednesday to assess the new site. He expressed that a team comprising the head of civil works department, head of the physical planning department, the district planning officer and the environmental health officer have been there with their team to do the “plenary investigation” and assessment.
“They are now going to give their report and also the NADMO team was with us. So, this is a comprehensive project that has to be tackled comprehensively because it’s a lasting solution that we want to find to the perennial problem of flooding in both communities. There is fast-track action on it [and] once the cost estimate is provided, then we can look at how to find the resources to execute the relocation.”
Kwasi Bonzo
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