Children need to be protected-Educationist

Mr. Kwesi Hutchful, Tema District Director of Education, says there is the need to ensure that the safety of children is always guaranteed.

"There is now so much indiscipline that children are no longer safe even at zebra crossings. We need to come together as a community and make our children safer," he said.

Mr. Hutchful said this when Tigo-Ghana handed over three newly refurbished water reservoirs to the Tema Municipal Assembly on Tuesday.

The ceremony was in association with Tigo-Ghana, Safe Child Ghana, an NGO and the Tema Municipal Assembly.

The reservoirs had previously posed a threat to the public, especially children in their non-refurbished state, reportedly claiming over ten lives in the past five years, due to the fact that they were not covered.

He said as responsible adults, "we need to keep a strong eye on our children in order to ensure that they are safe, wherever they might be."

The chairman for the occasion, Chief Superintendent Kweku Buah, Tema Community One Police Commander, said it was unfortunate that people often turned a blind eye to some serious threats to human lives, such as exposed electricity wires and uncovered pits, among many others, without drawing the attention of the relevant authorities.

“We need to be conscious of dangers that threaten innocent people. Deaths from accidents that are preventable are very unfortunate because they are just not necessary," he said.

Mrs. Leticia Adu-Ampomah, Integrity Manager of Tigo-Ghana, said Tigo-Ghana, decided to collaborate with Safe Child Ghana, to adopt a public safety program, to help prevent the reservoirs from taking more lives.

"A ten-year-old boy, Anas Maliok, lost his life in October 2010 in the second reservoir. A similar incident occurred in 2009, when two children aged nine and eleven, got drowned in the same reservoir.

The Chief Executive Officer of Safe Child Ghana, Madam Gifty Baabu, urged members of the public to bring to the notice of the NGO, any threats to human life they may know of, "especially if it has to do with children or a child".

Three water reservoirs situated along the Tema children's park road and seven basic schools, have claimed several lives, most of them children, in a span of five years.

As a preventive measure, Safe Child Ghana, adopted a program dubbed the "Child Safety Awareness Program," which led to the refurbishment of the reservoirs.**