Hon. Emmanuel Bedzrah Writes: Buildings Under Water at Mefe
I woke up this morning thinking it was all a horrible dream! But No it was not. It was a real life trauma I went through yesterday at Mefe distributing some relief items mobilized by the Volta MPs caucus. Spending my day at Mefe and its surrounding villages in the North Tongu district yesterday was indeed a nightmare. It was a rainy day but I had no choice, but to brave through the rain with my team to do the needful.
Folks, the havoc being caused in the lower Volta area by the spillage of the Akosombo dam is a national disaster. The water has taken over homes with some at roofing levels with people trapped in some of them waiting to either die out of hunger or get drowned.
While in a canoe on the flood waters distributing food and drinking water, I heard a young girl shout from where they were trapped “Honorable MP, thank you so much but please we need sanitary pads too, can you buy some and send to us?”.
Earlier, an elderly man had drawn my attention to the same issue, that women and teenage girls trapped in their homes and at some safe shelters are in need of sanitary pads. The young girl’s shout across the waters was therefore a confirmation of the same issue. Terrible isn’t it? Folks, while on the water, I lost count of a number of carcasses floating on the flood waters, an indication of a looming public health disaster when the waters recede.
This must be of interest to the Hon. Minister for Health so that preparations are made to avert an epidemic that may compound an already terrible situation in the area. The time to act is now.
Fellow Ghanaians, the people of Mefe, Adidome, Sokpe, Bakpa just to mention a few are in need of help! I am using this medium to appeal to central government about the plight of the people being affected by this man-made flood. 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 basic essentials like food and water, at least, in the interim.
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.
While appealing to our conscience for help, I am also of the view that it is time we revisit the Volta project as envisaged by the first president of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. 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 disaster in the 21st century.
When you go to Church today, remember the people in North, Central and South Tongu districts of the Volta region. Akpe na mi!
