Dam spillage disaster: What happened in Mepe can't happen in Cantonment - Yaw Nsarkoh

The Executive Vice President of Unilever Ghana and Nigeria, Yaw Nsarkoh, has expressed concern over the apparent lack of response from engineers regarding the ongoing disaster resulting from the spilling of the Akosombo and Kpong dams by the Volta River Authority (VRA).

Yaw Nsarkoh who was speaking at the gathering of engineers in Accra stated he is of high faith that the disaster would not not have gotten the same reaction from stakeholders if it occurred in Cantonments, in Accra.

To him, the people in Mepe, the hardest hit communities in the disaster, are being seen as lesser humans for which the VRA went ahead to spill the dam.

His comments came as a reaction to the ongoing disaster which was caused by spilling of the Akosombo and the Kpong dams.

This has caused severe flooding and has left nearly 30,000 people in approximately 11 communities downstream of the Volta River, homeless, with many losing their homes and sources of livelihood.

Yaw Nsarkoh who is also an engineer indicated that oftentimes, organisations are left to go their own way even after causing disasters in rural communities.

“I promised somebody that I will not make any noise about VRA today. But I will only say, when we engineers get to a place where they can say to people we say you should move and you didn't and so we have drowned you, those people have been tinnified.

“I am willing to take an oath, that could never have been done in Cantonments but the people of Mepe have been tinnified. So we do things and we just move on. But I made a promise and I will try to keep to it,” he said.

He went on to say that there are no justifications to be given for impoverishing minor communities just to enrich larger organisations.

He further cited the devastating effect of galamsey on rural communities as a case.

“That is the only explanation I can give, one human being sending another out of a job when his and usually his own wealth is growing by 30%. Why do we send somebody home so that they don't have a salary, they can't eat and they can't take care of their family but your wealth is growing by 30%. What are you trying to improve the margin for?

“How else can I explain that we do nothing about illegal mining (galamsey), poisoning our compatriots. Would we be so quiet and indifferent and drink polluted water in Labone, Cantonment, Airport Residential area, Ridge and so on. It can only be fully explained by accepting that we see some of our compatriots as less human than us. Therefore we simply do not care enough about their conditions of existence and that is tinnification” the Executive Vice President noted.

To him, the current political system in the country has further pushed poor electorates down the development agenda.

“Fourth Republican politics has led to the tinnification of the poor electorate. They are viewed as thumbprints on the ballot paper. Else how in God’s mighty name can we live unconcerned, undisturbed and unperturbed when the April Partners Report published stark realities in June 2023 about poverty in this country,” he added.

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