Dam spillage: You’re getting on our nerves; move to where? – Ablakwa to Freda Prempeh

Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, is furious with the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Freda Prempeh, over her comment that the victims of the Akosombo dam spillage at Mepe and other areas that were affected refused several warnings given to them to relocate by the Volta River Authority, Water Resources Commission and the National Disaster Management Organisation.

The Minister told journalists in an interview that “We don’t want what has happened in Akosombo to happen to us in Accra. The Akosombo spillage, even though VRA, NADMO, and the Water Resources Commission came together to educate the people in the community, did a simulation exercise at Mepe, yet they refused to leave, they didn’t want to be evacuated, they stayed there till the end when we started spilling", she told journalists.

“Unfortunately, look at what is happening!".

"The government has to spend millions of money on relief items, the whole area, the water is contaminated, and Ghana Water Company and Water Resources Commission will have to spend millions of money to treat the water before we can pass it through into our pipes", she complained.

In an angry response, Mr Ablakwa cautioned the Minister not to add salt to the injury of his constituents who are already suffering as a result of the floods from the spillage of the excess water from the two dams.

Speaking to Class News, Mr Ablakwa stated “these Akufo-Addo Ministers should stop adding insults to injury, we are pained, we are distressed, we are depressed, we are devastated, they should stop these things, it’s getting on our nerves, we’ve had enough of their blatant lies.

The agitated MP raised series of questions. “She should tell us when, she should give us dates, when did they come here? She herself has she been here before, does she know what she’s talking about, move to where? She said the people refused to move, move to where? Is she aware that we were here more than 200 years before the dam was constructed? That we had to give out portions of our land for these two dams to be constructed? I mean the level of ignorance is shocking, they should stop embarrassing themselves, that the people refused to move, move to where?

“Nobody is a squatter here, that point must be made very clear, even if you had plans for the people to be relocated what did you put in place, what have you constructed, where were the people supposed to go to? Is government not ashamed that the NADMO camps that they have erected are in classrooms”?

Mr Ablakwa emphasised that the Minority will be filing a motion for a full scale probe which will be live on television and every Ghanaian will get into these matters and know exactly what happened.

About 26,000 people have been displaced by the floods while swathes of farmlands and property have been destroyed and submerged.