Boy, 14, drowns in drain during heavy rains

Ashaiman (Tema), June 04, GNA- Tragedy struck a household at Ashaiman when a 14 year old boy who was playing football with his friends got drowned in a drain, a distance from his house during last Saturday's heavy downpour.

The body of the boy has since not been found and a search party is still looking for it.

The body is believed to have been carried far away into the Gbemi Stream, which enters the Sakomono Lagoon. The assemblyman of Obakatse electoral area, where the incident occurred, Mr Thomas Adongo told the GNA on Monday that as the boys were playing in the rain the ball went into the drain. He said the deceased whose name was given only as Kwasi made an attempt to remove it from the drain but luck run out of him as he slipped and fell into the drain.

The assemblyman said the deceased travelled from Kumasi to Ashaiman to visit his father, who has been traumatized by the incident. The Tema Municipal Officer of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Joseph Dennis Abraham-Reynolds said the drowning was the second in that particular drain and the that body was also not retrieved.

He urged parents to ensure that their children are kept indoors during heavy downpour and that the communities must also embark on constant environmental cleaning to desilt the drains to avoid such disasters. Mr Abraham-Reynolds said those who get drown normally get trapped in the silt that settles under the drains filled with refuse. He said most residents of the area are squatters who have built on waterways thus making accessibility very difficult. Meanwhile, the assemblyman for Kwasi Plange electoral in Tema Community One, Mr Alhassan Issa has complained about the narrowness of gutters in the area, which overflows onto the streets and enters the Tema Central Market.

He said the initial drains were wide enough to contain the volume of water but the current construction has worsened the situation and the rains have exposed the shoddy job.

Some residents of the Padmore electoral area also occasionally call at the GNA office to complain about the narrowness of the drains in the area currently under construction. The said they could not understand why the gutter, which was wide before its re-construction, has now been narrowed raising fear's that the water could overflow into their houses. 4 June 07