The Member of Parliament for Ho West, Emmanuel Bedzrah, has entreated the government to treat the floods caused by the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong Dams as a national disaster.
He insisted that the government must begin evacuating people living in the affected areas among other precautionary measure to prevent the loss of lives.
“Mr. President, people’s homes are under water in the Lower Volta areas as a result of the spillage at Akosombo. Kindly treat this disaster as a national security issue and order for the evacuation of the people to safe grounds while providing them with essentials like food and water, at least, in the interim”, he stated in a social media post.
He further indicated that “my experience with the people yesterday tells me it is a humanitarian situation that cannot be handled by any individual but central government. Let the nation Ghana wake up to the realities of what is happening.
“We shall engage in the usual politics and ethnocentric diatribes after we save the lives of these people. Watching in aloofness only reveals that our branded hospitable nature is all a façade.
“Extending condolences and felicitations to people in war-torn countries in Europe and the Middle East is a nice thing to do, but what we do at home in times of disasters such as this tells a fuller story.”
He said touring the affected communities, he noticed some people are trapped in their homes waiting to either die out of hunger or get drowned, as they have no means of leaving to safe grounds.
He indicated that others are in dire need of life essentials such as sanitary towels, food, and water among others while they hope to get evacuated to safe grounds soon, to avert death.
Mr. Bedzrah also advocated for a stakeholder approach and re-engineering of the Volta project initiated by the first president of Ghana, the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to prevent such disasters.
“A man-made lake like the Volta Lake should have projects that benefit directly from events such as we are experiencing now through proper engineering and not man-made disasters in the 21st century”, he said.
Currently, houses in over 100 communities in the South, North, and Central Tongu, Keta, and Anlo Districts have been submerged in the floods, with some at roof levels.
