Rains displace Tema residents : cause destruction to property
Some communities in Tema and surrounding areas were flooded following last Tuesday’s downpour, which displaced many residents of the affected communities.
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The rains, which started in the early hours of the day and went on for a few hours, left many parts of the metropolis flooded.
Among the most affected were communities Two and Five and surrounding areas.
At the BBC neighbourhood in Community Two, the floods swept through a number of homes, causing destruction to personal belongings, including mattresses, furniture, books and electrical appliances.
Choked drains and blocked culverts aggravated the floods.
At Community Five, almost 200 squatters living along the banks of the Sakumono Lagoon were displaced.
Their situation was worsened by the activities of developers who had refilled portions of the Sakumono Lagoon for the construction of homes, churches and other structures.
The lagoon serves as collection point for rainwater to prevent flooding.
Tour
The Metropolitan Chief Executive for Tema, Mr Felix Mensah Nii Annang-La, led a team, including officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, to ascertain the extent of flooding in the metropolis.
Mr Annang-La described the situation as “a crisis” and promised to make appropriate recommendations for a proper technical assessment of the situation for redress.
He also vowed to stop encroachment and other illegal developments on the Ramsar site (the Sakumono Lagoon) to avert any further disaster in the metropolis.
Challenges
The Greater Accra Regional Coordinator of NADMO, Mr Archibald Cobbinah, expressed concern over the lack of resources and logistics for the organisation, a situation which he said was affecting effective delivery of services.
“As a region, we don’t even have a single sledge hammer and yet we are managing a whole region of 34 constituencies, 16 districts and so many communities. That is why we are calling on stakeholders to support us, so that we can bite and bite well to ensure that we have a disaster-free society, as stipulated by the President,” he stated.
According to him, the Sakumono Ramsar Site and another one at Glefe, near Dansoman, were under threat from encroachers, adding that NADMO would take proactive steps to protect those two water bodies which served as a reservoir for excess water to prevent flooding.
Sanitation
In a related development, the Tema Traditional Council has tasked Mr Annang-La to take steps to address the sanitation situation in the city to ensure a clean and healthy environment.
The Tema Mantse, Nii Adjei Kraku II, made the call when Mr Annang-La paid a courtesy call on him at his palace last Tuesday.
The MCE formally introduced himself to the Tema Mantse, his elders and the traditional council, following his swearing-in as the political head of the metropolis.
Nii Kraku bemoaned the poor sanitation situation resulting from indiscriminate littering in the port city and tasked the MCE to lead a crusade to end the menace.
For his part, Mr Annang-La expressed his appreciation to the traditional council for the support given him before and after his nomination by the President and his subsequent confirmation by the assembly.
Pledge
He promised to work closely with the traditional authority for the accelerated development of the area.
He said the assembly had already taken steps to ensure that heaps of garbage along the streets in Tema were cleared.
“We have set a timeline of three weeks to rid the metropolis of filth and we will go about it constituency by constituency, so that we clear all this filth in the metropolis. If we do not check sanitation and there is a cholera outbreak, we all stand the risk of falling ill,” he said.
Present at the meeting were some prominent citizens of Tema, including the Board Chairman of the Tema Development Corporation (TDC), Mr Emmanuel O. Adjetey; a former Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Mr Seth Agoe Adjetey; a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema East, Mr Samuel Evans Ashong Narh, among others.
Writer’s email: [email protected]