Sirigu (U/E) July 31, GNA - More than 30 families in Sirigu, near Navrongo in the Upper East Region have been sponsored in the past three years to build at least one concrete reinforced room in their houses that can withstand floods. The support which came from the Reverend Father Franz Meddens, a Catholic Priest in Holland and his friends, is meant to provide the families with secure accommodation in case floods washed away the mud huts they used.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Sirigu at the weekend, Mr Franz Zemp, who is supervising the buildings, 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 explained that the rooms were built on reinforced foundations and roofed with aluminium sheets. He said the entire project cost 80 million cedis, including food that was provided for neighbours who helped in the work. Mr Zemp said all the beneficiaries were poor and included widows and old people living on their own. They were identified by people in the community.

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.