Govt to secure additional support for Akosombo Dam spillage victims
The government is to secure funding from the World Bank and the International Climate Fund to provide support for communities affected by the recent Akosombo and Kpong Dam spillage.
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The intervention forms part of efforts by the government to alleviate the plight of the disaster victims and foster a long-term resilience programme in the affected communities.
The Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, who announced this, explained that the additional funding would supplement the GH¢220 million contained in the 2024 budget for rehabilitation and restoration initiatives.
Mrs Osei-Opare, who was addressing journalists in Accra yesterday, said in addition to the physical loss, many victims were faced with mental health challenges due to the trauma associated with the disaster.
“Let me emphasise that the inter-ministerial committee collaborates closely with all relevant stakeholders and remains committed to ongoing engagements to ensure the effective management of flood impacts and the streamlining of programmes aimed at restoring livelihoods,” the Chief of Staff said.
She commended the media for bringing to attention the predicament of the people leading to the massive support from the public.
“While this situation looks like a long haul, we feel confident that we can mitigate or reduce the suffering in the shortest possible time because of the cooperation of governmental agencies and the general public,” Mrs Osei-Opare added.
Education sector
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei-Adutwum, expressed appreciation to the World Bank and other development partners for their support in addressing the needs of affected pupils and students.
He said 42,526 learners and 1,561 teachers in 121 schools were affected by the disaster in the North Tongu, Keta, Anlo, South Tongu, Central Tongu, Ketu South, Kpando and South Dayi districts in the Volta Region.
The minister also said that support had been extended to all affected students to enable them to resume academic work.
“We are also going through an emergency procurement process to enable us provide teaching and learning materials to all affected schools,” Dr Adutwum added.
The Executive Director of Water Resources Commission, Bod Alfa, cautioned residents to avoid contact with untreated water due to the presence of bacteria pathogens such as E.Coli and Enterococcus which could cause health challenges to them.
For his part, the Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, said there was heightened surveillance system to help prevent disease outbreaks in affected districts and regions.
Solar lamps
The Chief Executive Officer of VRA, Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa, said a total of 5,000 solar lamps had been distributed to victims in areas where electricity supply had been disrupted, while work was ongoing to reconnect electricity and water to some of the impacted communities, in addition to construction of new access roads.
He said the authority was also collaborating with district health directorates to provide drugs to health centres and mobile clinics set up in the various holding shelters of which they had spent in excess of GH¢2.5 million on the supply of medical items.
The Deputy Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Seji Saji Amedonu, said fumigation in most affected areas had been completed while conditional structural integrity tests and an environmental impact analysis of structures in some communities had been conducted by the UN Inter-Agency Working Group on Emergencies which report was yet to be published.
The spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong Dams from September 15 to October 30, 2023, had a devastating impact on communities across the Volta, Eastern, Greater Accra, and Oti regions, displacing nearly 40,000 people, leaving hundreds of homes and farmlands inundated by floodwaters.