Sirrigu (U/R), Aug 02, GNA - More than 30 families in Sirrigu near Navrongo have been sponsored over the past three years to build at least one concrete reinforced room in their houses that can withstand floods. The support, that came from Rev. Fr, Franz Meddens, a Catholic Priest in Holland and his friends, is meant to provide the families with secure accommodation in case floods wash away the mud huts they use.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Sirrigu at the weekend, Mr Franz Zemp, who is supervising the construction, explained that the idea came up after a flood in the early 1990s washed away many houses and left families homeless. He said some of the families got two concrete reinforced rooms, depending on their needs, and that the rooms were built on reinforced foundations and roofed with aluminium sheets. He said the project cost 80 million cedis, including food that was provided for neighbours who helped in the work. Mr Zemp said the beneficiaries were poor including widows and old people living on their own. Mr Apang Eta, a local mason who built the rooms, said the project had helped a lot of old people who had been left on their own, and childless old women who had nobody to care for them. 02 Aug 06