Dam Spillage: Physically challenged flood victims raise issues of unfair treatment and neglect at safe havens

The Executive Chairman of the 9-member committee at the St. Kizito Senior High School premises which is one of the safe havens in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region following the displacement of people as a result of the spillage of excess water from the Akosombo and Kpong dams, Mr Amanatey Dusi, has accused the Traditional authorities at Mepe, the District Assembly of the North Tongu District and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and other stakeholders of unfair treatment and the total neglect of people living with disabilities.

According to Mr Dusi, a disabled person and a victim of the spillage who is currently at the St. Kizito Senior High School, the above stakeholders have not shown much concern for him and his like as they have done for abled victims of the flood.

"They are not looking at our plight and also not considering us as people with disabilities," he said.

"What we think is that we should be considered as a unit but they are telling us that they can't consider us as a unit, they rather go from house to house if they meet a disabled there then it means the disabled are covered.

"And we are saying that those things will not reach our members," he said.

He noted there are currently about 175 persons with disabilities who are displaced at Mepe alone and some of them are in the safe haven at St. Kizito Senior High School and other ones in the town.

He raised these concerns speaking exclusively to Class 91.3 FM's Volta Regional Correspondent, Kingsley Attitsogbui, on Wednesday, November 1, 2023.

He added that more of their members are also staying with their respective families and they must also be reached with equal distribution of available relief items.

He lamented that for about two weeks, food and water had not come to them in the safe haven.

He bemoaned situations such as abled victims of the flood getting mattresses, while the disabled could not.

He called on all stakeholders to consider them in the distribution of relief items to ensure transparency and accountability.