Regional News of Wednesday, 4 June 2003

Source: Chronicle

Floods Eject People From Homes

AFTER MANY years of suffering environmental hazards, the people of Ayekotse-Zongo at Suhum in the Eastern region finally had a smile on their faces when a bridge costing millions of cedis was constructed to link Ayekotse-Zongo and the entire Suhum.

It wad intended to help people living in the two communities go to market and other areas of the town.

Sadly, a few years later, the people have begun experiencing a more dangerous situation in the area as the gutter has been filled to the brim with sand, weeds and refuse. Weeds have overgrown the bridge and the people around have been ejected by floods due to the congestion of the bridge.

Ignorantly, people living in the environs thought dumping of refuse on the edges of the river and around their houses could solve the problem, but that eventually worsened the floods.

At present, the floods have forced out the occupants of more than 15 houses and numerous stores around.

The question is, where are they going to lay their heads? Some houses are still filled with water and are fast being overgrown with weeds and developing serious cracks. Are we waiting for those houses to break down before we rebuild or compensate the owners.

Mr. Musah Saddique a.k.a Bawah is a landlord of a four-bedroom self contained house. When this reporter visited the scene recently, the floods water had risen above waist level, within the compound and rooms of house.

"Sir look at what the flood has done to my family and myself". Many other landlords and tenants lamented the havoc the floods have wreaked on their families and property.

When asked how they expected the problem to be solved, they invariably asked the district assembly at Suhum and their MP, Ransford Agyapong to desilt the Suhum river and ease away the flood waters.

Some among them added that the Environmental Protection Agency and the assembly's public health department should mount an educational campaign to stop people from further choking the waterways with filth.