VRA provides medical support to flood victims

The Volta River Authority (VRA) Health Service led by its medical director, Dr Omari-Yeboah, has deployed medical support and medicines to cater for the victims of the flood as a result of the spilling of the Akosombo and Kpong dams.

Speaking on the medical interventions put in place to support the communities, Dr Omari-Yeboah said that the authority is working closely with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to deploy staff to the affected areas.

“Doctors, nurses and allied health professionals have been deployed to provide much needed medical support,” he said.

“The GHS has deployed personnel from other parts of the country to augment the efforts of the medical staff on the ground. We are providing medical, sanitary, lab and pharmacy services at no cost to the citizens,” Dr Omari-Yeboah added.

In addition to the extra doctors and nurses deployed, he said that his outfit was supplying medicines to support the relief effort.

“As part of the combined efforts, we have also supplied medicines to the Ghana Health Services to help in the relief effort,” he said.

These medical relief supplies include anti-venom serums, pain killers, antibiotics, hand sanitisers, mosquito repellents, gloves, cannulas, dewormers and anti-fungal topical creams. The VRA Health Service also supplied drugs that targeted specific diseases such as cholera, enteric fever, dysentery, worm infestations, skin infections, snake bites, malaria and respiratory diseases.

“We are in this together. It is our sworn duty to serve and we shall serve our community. We will leave no stone unturned in providing the medical support needed,” Dr Omari-Yeboah added.

Impact of spillage

Tracts of land, including farms and communities downstream the Akosombo and Kpong dams have been flooded following the spillage of excess water from the two dams used to generate about a third of Ghana’s electricity supply.

The VRA started the spillage at the Akosombo and Kpong dams, both in the Eastern Region, from September 15, 2023, following a rise in the water level of both reservoirs due to appreciable levels of rainfall.

Communities

The spillage affected almost all the communities along the lower Volta Basin, resulting in widespread power cuts in the affected communities.

The GRIDCo sub-station in Fievie, Sogakope, in the Volta Region, has been inundated, leading to the shutting down of the station.

Impact

In the South Tongu District capital, Sogakope, for instance, the Comboni Centre, which houses the Comboni Hospital, mortuary, technical vocational institute, basic schools, and their Vitro laboratory have all been closed down.

More than 893 basic school children in the district are now loitering after five basic schools were shut in the area over mounting health and safety concerns in the wake of the floods.

The children include 395 boys and 498 girls.

The affected schools are Cuniberto RC Memorial Basic School in Sogakope, Anaosukope PCG Primary School in Sokpoe, Sogakope RC Basic School, Gonu Agbokope DA Primary School, and Gonu RC Basic School.

 

The District Director of Education, Celestine Sewoenam Adzoa Korsi-Agordo, disclosed this at the meeting with officials of the VRA and NADMO at Sogakope last Friday.

She expressed fears of a possible disruption of the academic calendar, saying the education authorities were considering enrolling the children in different schools if the situation continued.

The District Director of Education said apart from the spillage from the Akosombo Dam, which had caused the schools to be submerged, the washrooms of some of the schools were now filled with faecal matter.

Mrs Korsi-Agordo said the condition was worst in schools whose lavatories had been submerged, raising very serious health concerns.

Hundreds of patients too cannot access the premier Comboni Hospital at Sogakope, and families whose deceased relatives were in the morgue were made to rush there and move the bodies.

The Sogakope Beach Resort has not been accepting guests over the past few days as the facility is suffering the impact of the floods.

The Agordomi Water Works, which treats and supplies water to Sogakope, has equally been affected, and water has not flown through the taps in the last few days.

South Tongu’s Gonu enclaves of Ahiatrogakope, Havorkope, Adadzikope, Agbokope, Sukladzi, Ashiagborkope and Tsinuto, among others, have experienced some flooding caused by the Tordzie River in the past.

A surveyor and politician at Sogakope, Maxwell Lukutor, urged the government to urgently find a safe haven and move the affected individuals there while it provides relief items, especially food and clothing, to the victims.

He also called for the urgent dredging of the estuary to allow for free flow of the spilled water into the sea.

“Get a technical committee from VRA to assess the extent of damage for compensation to victims,” Mr Lukutor stated.

Another resident and entrepreneur, Yao Amekor, said: “Now that the Akosombo Dam spillage is pushing and supplying water with speed never witnessed before, the flood level at the greater Gonu area is simply heart-wrenching”.

He said the floods had also aggravated environmental concerns as toilets, mortuaries, refuse dumps and cemeteries had been affected.

Mr Amekor, therefore, called on the government and its agencies to act urgently to relieve the people and avert a major environmental disaster.

Source: Daily Mail GH