Resettle flood victims in Awowin-Suaman District - NADMO

Takoradi, July 14 (Ms Yeboah) GNA - The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) has recommended the immediate resettlement of flood victims in the low lying areas at Enchi and Dadieso in the Awowin-Suaman District of the Western Region.

The Western Regional office of NADMO, which gave the advice, said this would stop the perennial disaster the communities faced every rainy season.

Mr Japhet Baidoo, the Regional NADMO Coordinator, told the GNA, on Wednesday, in Takoradi, that the victims of the flood had agreed to the resettlement offer to save their lives and property.

The victims number about 5,000 with Enchi town, alone, recording 951 victims and the rest from the other communities.

He said the perennial rains in these cocoa and food stuff farming communities had claimed two lives and destroyed large hectares of farms and houses, rendering the people incapacitated.

The dead has been identified as Mr Agyenim Boateng who worked with the Akuafo Adamfo Cocoa Company and was also an elder of the Church of Pentecost.

His body has been deposited at the Enchi Government Hospital mortuary while the second person known only as Yaw, has been buried because of the decomposed nature of the body.

He said the displaced victims had lost almost all their personal belongings and farm produce to the heavy rains and were currently lodging with friends and relatives.

Mr Baidoo said the situation, which he described as very dire, was compounded by water from rivers uphill that have overflowed their banks and forced their ways into homes and churches, thus ripping off their roofs and collapsing some.

The Regional NADMO Coordinator commended the military from the 48 Engineers Regiment for doing a very good job with NADMO to save the lives of people.

He stressed that resettlement was the only solution to the annual unfortunate disaster and noted that without that the government would continue to spend huge sums of monies on relief items, which were also inadequate.

A similar disaster occurred in 2007.

To prevent famine, the NADMO Coordinator appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) to support the affected communities in kind and cash to re-cultivate their farmlands when the rains stop.