Nzema Akropong, a cocoa and rubber growing community in Ellembele District of the Western Region, has been destroyed by torrential rainfall, with domestic animals killed.
No less than 150 houses were razed down on Sunday when the entire low land community got flooded after days of continuous downpour.
Four hundred residents were displaced, and are currently lodging in the local clinic and churches while others are also putting up with friends and relations.
Some of them who were fortunate that their kitchens were not pulled down by the flood are using such structures as bedrooms.
The Daily Statesman gathered that this is the third time in 13 years that Nzema Akropong had been destroyed by rainfall. Reports indicate that the first destruction, which occurred in 2009, was also massive.
Devastation
Tufuhene Kwasi, acting chief of the destroyed community, described last Sunday’s incident as the “mother of all destructions.”
According to him, Nzema Akropong, which is surrounded by five different rivers, gets flooded during heavy downpours.
He said this usually happens when River Hwinii, the major river in the area, gets choked or overflows its banks. Tufuhene Kwasi said the people were sick and tired of losing their hard-earned landed property to perennial flooding, and therefore ready to be resettled on higher grounds in the same area.
He, however, attributed the delayed resettlement exercise to reluctance of past governments to compensate the farmers for the destruction of their cocoa farms on the designated land.
It is against this backdrop that he appealed to the Akufo-Addo government to, as a matter of urgency, compensate all residents whose cocoa farms will be affected by the exercise to pave way for it.
Donation
Meanwhile, Adamus Gold Resources, a mining company in the district, on Wednesday presented hundred bags of rice, sugar, boxes of cooking oil and tinned fish to the victims.
The company went to Adubrim, another flooded community, to present similar food items to the affected people.
The District Chief Executive, Kwasi Bonzoh, accompanied by some Assembly officials, visited the area to ascertain the extent of the recent damage.
In a brief interview with journalists, Mr Bonzoh reiterated that the residents cannot continue to live in that flood-prone area as it will to jeapardise their lives.
He said physical planning even confirms the need to resettle all Nzema Akropong residents to higher and safer land.
Mr Bonzoh said the Assembly would present relief items to the displaced victims, and called on other individuals, organisations and institutions to also come to their aid as the government finds a lasting solution to their problem.
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