The National Disaster Management Organisation is set to commence an Environmental and sanitation impact assessment in areas affected by the spillage of the Akosombo and kpong Dams on November 8, 2023.
This exercise will be preceded by structural testing at various homes which were previously submerged in water caused by the floods. NADMO further says it will fumigate the areas after determining the extent of contamination.
The exercise is coming in handy as calls for relocation of displaced persons have begun intensifying in the affected communities. A visit to the North and Central Tongu Districts revealed that the floodwaters had seen a significant reduction. However, chiefs of the area say the despite the receding waters, the homes are still not conducive enough to live in.
Queen mother of the Mepe Traditional Area, Mamaga Adzo Sreku IV says “We’ll need engineers to come and see the integrity of those buildings before people enter them, because what we don’t want is for people to go home and have buildings collapse over them.”
She has also been calling for the relocation of the victims from the safe havens. She explains, secondary education has been on hold since the floods began because, the schools are being used as safe havens for the victims.
“For now, we’ll need some resettlement for those whose buildings collapsed because we need to free the classrooms for the children to go back to school. So, the resettlement plan should be very quick, especially the secondary schools. The primary schools are managing under trees and churches but the secondary schools have not started at all because people are residing there,” she lamented.
Deputy NADMO boss, Seji Saji Amedonu however, explains testing will begin in the affected areas to ascertain the probability of relocation.
“We have a team to conduct some environmental and sanitation impact assessment and structural integrity tests of the structures. They are starting work tomorrow morning and they have about three days to present their report, then we’ll quickly move to decontamination.
At least this assessment will bring out what level of contamination there is in those infrastructure that were affected by the floods,” he explained.
Energy Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh who made some donations in the North Tongu district, explained in an interview with TV3 that, government through the inter-ministerial committee is coming up with permanent solution to the issue of relocation.
“Government will role out things that they think will help. They’ve (the chiefs) seen the impact of what government is doing and they don’t think there’s a need to move their people to Saglemi and I don’t think Saglemi is available to move into,” he explained.
Currently, 39,336 persons within 8 districts have been displaced as a result of the floods, with 192 communities affected.