Battor/Mepe, Friday 29th October 2023 - The Ministry of Finance led by the Minister, Hon Ken Ofori-Atta, and some management of the Volta River Authority (VRA) have visited some of the victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage in the North Tongu District to commiserate with them.
The visit forms part of the government’s commitment towards alleviating the plight of the over 40,000 people, including children and the aged, who have been displaced following the spillage.
The worst hard-hit districts have been the Central, South, and North Tongu Districts in the Volta Region of Ghana.
The visit began in Battor in the North Tongu District, where Mr. Ofori-Atta received a briefing from the District Chief Executive (DCE), Divine Osborn Fenu and National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) Director General, Nana Agyeman-Prempeh.
The team joined the Ministry of Information’s onsite press briefing after which the Minister handed over the relief items which included trucks loads of mosquito repellants, blankets, exercise books, diapers-pack, sanitary pads, T-Rolls, water, Red Oil, and medical items worth GHC2million mobilized in partnership with the VRA and a GHC50,000 cash contribution from staff of the Ministry.
Mr. Ofori-Atta in making the donation said, "as a family concerned about our affected brothers and sisters, the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the VRA, has provided a substantial amount of GHS2 million to support ongoing relief efforts. We also want to thank Ghanaians for their spontaneous response."
Addressing the residents, the Minister said, he had been touched by the plight of the victims and had embarked on the visit to commiserate with them and to use the opportunity to solicit first-hand information on the havoc caused by the floods and offer support to restore the damaged areas and provide relief items to sustain them in the interim until things get better.
On the sustainable actions being considered by government to ensure that a spillage of this magnitude does not reoccur, the Minister announced that government was working with VRA to expand the adaptive capacity of the Akosombo Dam to forestall incidences of this nature in the future.
According to him, the government was also working through the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to ring fence Ghc160 million to rebuild the communities that have been submerged by this spillage, as well as support households that have been displaced.
The Minister said, it was not just about working with numbers but experiencing the true feeling of what was happening on the ground, especially in times of crisis and underscored the importance of climate policy and financing to help address the long-term effects of climate change on victims of drought, flooding, and other adverse weather events.
Deputy Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) Seji Saji Amedonu commended the Hon. Minister and staff of the Ministry for coming all the way from Accra to commiserate with the victims rather than sending the relief items.
He again briefed the team on the current situation of the flood in the district and said that the water had receded considerably, prompting some of the victims to initiate plans to go back to their houses. He added that NADMO and other security agencies’ were assessing the situation.
The MP for the North Tongu Constituency, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa joined the team to visit some of the affected communities and interacted with indigenes. END