8-year-old pupil drowns in New Juaben flood

An eight-year-old pupil has drowned in the flash flood which occurred Monday at the New Juaben South Municipality of the Eastern region.

The deceased, identified as Ampofo Gyamfi drowned when he attempted to chase his lunchbox which was being carried away by the flood.

Efforts to save him by the driver of the School bus which he alighted from proved futile.

His body was later retrieved by a search party of officials from the National Disaster Management Organization and police. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at the SDA Hospital and his remains later deposited at the St. Joseph Hospital morgue.

Dozens of residents in the Municipality were also displaced after the heavy rainfall.

Several parts of flood-prone areas including Nkubem and Nsukwao were worst hit.

Many houses, shops, Churches and roads were inundated by the flood waters as properties worth thousands of cedis were destroyed.

Families were seen after the rainfall wiping out the flood waters from their rooms as they salvaged their properties.

The flood was exacerbated by an overflow of the Nsukwao Drainage system which was choked by plastics and other solid waste materials discarded indiscriminately by the residents.

Some engineers have over the years questioned the capacity of the Nsukwao drainage system to contain huge volume of water channeled from parts of the municipality to join it a situation which has been attributed to the perennial flooding in the municipality. – Kojo Ansah.