More than 700 victims of the Weija Dam spillage in the Ga South Municipality have benefited from a relief items presented by District 418 Ghana of Lions Clubs International, a charity organisation that supports and serves humanity.
The items worth GH₵145,000 included rice, cooking oil, toiletries and bags of sachet water.
The District Governor of the Lions Clubs International, Mr Emmanuel K. Gyimah said the gesture was informed by the extent of damage caused by the floods to the affected victims.
According to him, the club had to apply to the mother organisation, Lions Clubs International Foundation in the US for an emergency grant to cushion the victims of their loss.
“Today, it is a great joy to be here to present relief items to our brothers and sisters. It is even more heartwarming to do this presentation during the festive season of Christmas so our brothers and sisters can have something to smile about even during their time of loss,” he added.
Mr Gyimah said the victims were selected based on criteria used by the Assembly and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to get every household relieved of the loss.
He urged the victims to be cautions whenever the dam was open and seek for better shelter before they were affected with the floods.
The NADMO Municipal Director, Mr Christian Afiadenyo said about 12, 714 people were displaced by the floods in communities such as Ashalaja, Sampa Valley, Oblogo, Tetegu among others within the municipality.
He cautioned developers who built along water ways to desist from the act since it could cause flooding.
Mr Afiadenyo warned of impending earthquake within the municipality and advised residents to seek refuge under their beds, tables and corners of their rooms to prevent them from being hurt.
“The Ga South Municipality is a disaster prone area, recently we experience earth tremor and so we’re telling every individual to be careful when it comes to disaster. We’re also putting measures in place to prevent the menace and would also continue to sensitise them on early warnings,” he stated.
The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Joseph Nyarni in a speech read on his behalf commended Lions Clubs International for the gesture and appealed to other benevolence to come to their aid to relief the affected victims of their burden since the government could not do it alone.
He encouraged the beneficiaries to put the items to good use and assured them of government’s commitment to putting measures in place to ameliorate the situation to minimise the impact on the residents.
Some of the beneficiaries also expressed gratitude to Lions Clubs for the relief and called on government to come up with a permanent solution to the issue of flooding within the municipality.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
