Regional News of Thursday, 9 November 2023

Source: starrfm.com.gh

NAPO questions viability of resettlement for Akosombo flood victims

Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh

The Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has questioned the viability and practicality of constructing resettlement structures for residents displaced by the Akosombo Dam spillage.

According to the minister, the residents will return to their original homes after the water recedes as has always been the case.

Speaking to Starr News after briefing parliament about the disaster, Dr. Prempeh however said the decision of resettlement should be left in the hands of the committee set up by the government to oversee the spillage disaster.

“The government has set up a Ministerial committee that is still working, we are not out of the doldrums yet and when we finish, Parliament can enquire from them their reports."

“I think that we have a difficult time, where flooding has been occurring every year upstream north, there are settlement packages that are sent every year. One of the chiefs said that we should build them shelters because he knows that his people will go back to the areas that there will be flooding. So that when it is flooding they will come to the areas," he said.

He continued: “So, it is a very difficult thing; do you provide such shelter for difficult places? I think the experts will have to advise and we are not experts.”