Fire Service takes steps to avert fire outbreak in flooded fishing communities

The Upper Manya Krobo District office of the Ghana National Fire Service in the Eastern Region is taking proactive measures to prevent a potential fire outbreak in flooded fishing communities due to the imminent risk of premix fuel spillage on the floodwaters.

They have assessed several affected areas and are closely monitoring homes where fishermen have stored premix fuel, which has now been submerged.

Assessment by the Fire Service in affected fishing communities such as Akanten, Ayesu, Battorkope, Agajajeter, Akorkorma sisi, Kumakuma, Puorkper, Djogbe, Akrusu and Kpersebi and others inundated, with many houses underwater indicate some quantities of premix fuel stored in homes by fishermen have also been submerged.

This is a significant concern, and the Fire Service is working to prevent a potential fire disaster.

DOII Walter Drayi, the Upper Manya District Fire Commander, told Starr News, “We realize that every home here has premix or petrol in their rooms because it is fishing and farming community so those who are farming are using same premix to go to the river so every home there is a premix and in case there is fire the whole community will be raised down by fire so we try as much as possible to educate them every week concerning safety but we realize that it is not their fault because there is no place to put this premix .They cannot leave them on the shore and come and sleep.so when you come on market days people now sell premix in Voltic containers while people are flying fish, koliko, yam and other things so it is a very serious problem in Akenten.”

The Fire Commander observed that in spite of various admonishment to residents to relocate many are reluctant.

“We have been visiting the community and been giving them education to leave the affected accommodations so they have been moving .Every week we come here to give them education.Then concerning safety last two weeks when they opened the dam. Even we were fortunate the Akosombo Dam was opened because we are upstream so Akosombo dam rather block the water so when the open it this place receded small if not so by now the whole community is taken by water “

DOII Walter Drayi sadly added “The only thing is that the people themselves find it difficult to leave their homes. You talk to them to vacate they don’t want to leave”.

Meanwhile the Fire Commander appealed for silver boats to enable them conduct rescue and firefighting operations on water.

As the waters continue to rise upstream of the Volta lake, residents in fishing communities in Upper Manya Krobo face an uncertain future.

Rising water levels upstream of Volta Lake have submerged homes, leaving at least 1,200 residents displaced in the district.

David Kojo Narteh- Secretary for the traditional council in Akaten, and Regional coordinator inland canoe fishermen Association told Starr News “whenever the water level rises, and they spill the water, the water level begins to recede in this area. When they close the dam or the spillage slows it affects the area (Akaten) and all the other areas in upper Manya because the spillage helps us here. When they open the spillage then the pressure here is coming down. Most of the houses have been submerged here”.

The Electricity Company of Ghana had no choice but to cut power to the affected communities as electricity poles became submerged.

The vibrant Akaten market, once bustling with life, now lies submerged, leaving traders farmers and residents in despair.

Member of Parliament for Upper Manya Krobo, Bismark Tetteh Nyarko, Tuesday October 17, 2023 visited the affected communities along with officials from the Ghana National Fire Service and NADMO. He witnesses firsthand the economic activities disrupted by this calamity.

“The submerging of the market means that economic lives will be affected .Aside that over 500 households have been submerged by this water which has displaced a lot of people. The cost of resettling these people is the headache that we need to all as stakeholders need to get for them” the MP lamented.

Hon. Bismark Tetteh Nyarko called on the Upper Manya Krobo District Assembly to release the 3% allocation of the District Assembly Common Fund for disaster management to NADMO, the National Disaster Management Organization, to provide aid to the flood victims.

“The Act that established NADMO provided for 3% of the Assembly Common Fund to be given to NADMO. The NADMO Act 2016 section 39(C) provided for that 3% but my enquiry show that not even a pessewa has been allocated to NADMO and that is very bad that as a people we need to take some of these things seriously. So that at times like this we don’t find ourselves wanting”.

The MP allocated a building earmarked for the Police station as temporary shelter for the victims.