Tamale flood blamed on poor planning

The Northern Regional Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Abdul Hindu, has blamed the heavy downpour that destroyed several properties and killed one person in Tamale on buildings on waterways.

A 59-year-old woman identified as Hajia Fati Bapuni has been confirmed dead as a result of the floods.

Eyewitnesses told Class91.3FM’s Northern regional correspondent, Mohammed Gadafi that the deceased said she was going to pick her child from school but got swept away by the strong floods on her arrival at the Gariba Lodge Main Gutter area.

The rains, which started at 11am on Tuesday July 25, left several suburbs of the Tamale metropolis and some other settlements in the Sagnarigu district submerged.

Commenting on this development in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM on Wednesday July 26, Mr Hindu said: “It looks as if when they were demarcating the place for people to build, they didn’t show the people the water way and now people have built on waterways. So we want the survey department and urban roads to take this into consideration.

“We will also gather the chiefs and talk to them that people should move from the waterways otherwise we will demolish them by force because some of them were even asked not to build there and yet they used force to build.”