Persons affected by flooding following the Volta Lake breaking its banks in the Pru East District of the Bono East Region have received relief items from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).
Over nine communities were submerged following the breakage of the banks of the Volta Lake, leading to the displacement of over 2,000 people.
As such, NADMO donated relief items including food items, mattresses, and secondhand clothes, among others, to the victims.
The presentation was led by the Director General of NADMO, Eric Nana Agyemang-Prempeh.
Presenting the items, Mr. Agyemang-Prempeh said, “If you put people in safe havens, you need to cater for them. It is not about food alone. If there is a disaster, the first thing you need to do is search and rescue. Evacuation first, get the people who are homeless where to stay before you look at food items.”
“So here we have mattresses, mosquito coils, mosquito nets, rice, oil, and plastics. People will have to bathe, people will have to wash, and people will have to eat. They need to get plastic plates and plastic cups. We have here foss bails so that people can get things to wear.”
Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pru East, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, has called on the government to extend relief items to residents who have been displaced by flooding.
In an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Monday, he said that the institutions responsible for responding to such disasters must act urgently.
“The type of support they have received is communal, and aside from that, we have received very little from the Ghanaian state. This creates the impression that we seem not to matter because NADMO has a presence in the other districts. So it cannot be that the officialdom is not aware of our situation.”
“Public health awareness should be increased, temporary school structures and food are the immediate needs of our communities,” he said.