Oguaa residents experience first rain of the year

Cape Coast, May 14, GNA - It was exhilarating to see many residents in Cape Coast, who have over the past months being praying for rain, joyously harvesting rain water on Thursday morning, and again at dawn on Friday, following a heavy down pour.

The Central Regional Meteorological officer, Mr Emmanuel Adu, told the Ghana News Agency at Cape Coast that the rains on Friday, which fell for well over three hours, measured 83.7 millimetres, the highest in the town, since 2002, while Brimsu recorded 87.3 mm.

Asked whether residents were to expect more rains, Mr Adu said " we have entered the raining season so we should expect more rains". The downpour, not only kept many residents, who would have otherwise gone in search of water, busy filling all sort of containers, but also many workers from reporting for work early. As at the time of filing the story, at 10.30 am, many offices remained closed.

Vehicular traffic and trading activities were also virtually at a stand still with many of the shops closed, while drains and the streets near the lorry park at Tantri, a suburb of Cape Coast, were flooded, making both human and vehicular movement difficult However, the Regional Chief Manager of the Ghana Water Company, Mr Godwin Dovlo, said the two days of rains, was yet to make any impact on the water level in the Brimsu dam, which has fallen to 10 feet 8 inches, from 11 feet on Thursday.

He explained that when it rains, it takes between three to four days to make any impact, and that a crew has been sent to the company's observation point at Brimsu to ascertain if more water is flowing into the Kakum River. The Company has had to reduce water production due to the low level of water in the dam, but has secured about 14 water tankers to augment water supply to the town. The situation has led to the partial opening of most senior secondary schools in the municipality.