ECOWAS Supports Flood Victims In Volta Region

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has presented relief items to victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage in the Lower Volta Basin in the Volta Region.

The Resident Representative of ECOWAS in Ghana, Baba Gana Wakil, made the presentation at Battor last Thursday when he paid a visit to the North Tongu District to present a truckload of relief items worth about $10,000 to the victims.

Ambassador Wakil, who was accompanied by a team of ECOWAS officials and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, said the visit was also to enable the team to gather relevant information of the situation “beyond media reports”.

He said Ghana was a very active member of ECOWAS and, therefore, it was only proper for the community to support her in times of crisis such as the flood situation.

The items, which were presented through the District Chief Executive of North Tongu, Osborn Fenu, included bags of rice, cartons of vegetable oil, palm oil, tinned fish, salt, and gari.

Others were boxes of matches, bags of water, washing powder, toilet soap, bleach, packs of toilet roll, and sanitary pads.

The rest included exercise books, pencils, sharpeners, rulers and boxes of chalk.

Additional support

Ambassador Wakil said ECOWAS had a standard response procedure it followed in times of disasters in member states.

He, therefore, said additional support would be offered the victims after further assessment of the situation.

“We will persist to monitor the ground and inform the ECOWAS headquarters in Abuja for the appropriate steps to be taken,” the envoy added.

Gratitude

The DCE, Mr Fenu, expressed gratitude for the support. He said although the floods had largely receded, life was yet to return to normalcy in the area.

Mr Fenu said three weeks after schools had reopened, many children were still at home because their schools were still serving as safe havens for displaced persons.

For instance, the DCE mentioned the St Kizito Senior High Technical School which, he said, was still holding about 1,500 displaced people and added that “we are now holding make-shift classes for the children”.

Mr Fenu said an ongoing infrastructural integrity assessment would ascertain which houses were safe to be occupied again.

So far, the DCE said, 12,433 people had been displaced in 69 communities by the floods in North Tongu, which has 615 safe havens.

Mr Fenu said many of the 4,216 displaced persons were living in the safe havens, while about 8,000 were living with relatives and friends.

Ambassador Wakil and his team later toured the St Kizito school camp to commiserate with the victims.graphiconline