The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has launched an appeal for water receptacles to help provide potable water to residents of Anlo Beach who were hit by floods from River Pra.

About 80 per cent of the Anlo Beach town is currently covered in water, and NADMO fears the insanitary conditions in the area could cause a cholera outbreak in the midst of the flood. It said in a statement issued Friday that the floodwater has mixed with human excreta and “flowing through people’s homes”.

Tidal waves swept away several houses at Anlo Beach, a coastal community in the Shama District of the Western Region, on June 11, 2017 when the Pra River overflowed its banks. Assin Praso, Adansi Praso and other communities along the River were also affected by the flood.

About 198 houses along the shores of Anlo Beach were washed away, leaving 838 residents displaced. NADMO says though the Ghana National Fire Service has expressed its readiness to provide potable water for the people, it is unable to do due to lack of water storage containers.

Officials of NADMO have partnered with other emergency response agencies like the Joint Operations of the Ghana Armed Forces, the Western Regional Naval Base, the Police and the Ghana National Fire Service to help bring the situation under control. “NADMO has already presented mattresses, buckets and other relief items to the affected persons,” the statement said.