Accra, Nov. 10, GNA – Parliament has thrown the searchlight on the disaster by tidal waves last Sunday in three constituencies in the Volta Region, stressing on urgent relief assistance from government to reduce the burden on victims.
It also called on government to quickly go through with the second-phase of the Keta Sea Defence Project.
More than 3,000 people are reportedly displaced and 500 houses destroyed by the tidal waves in communities in the Ketu South, Keta and Anlo constituencies.
The affected people are in need of food, clothes, medicines and shelter to cope with the tragic effects of waves on the dawn of November 7, 2021.
Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, the Member of Parliament for Ho West and Chairman of the Volta Regional Caucus, in a statement on the floor of Parliament, said the matter was of urgent public importance.
The ravaging waves affected residents in Abutiakope, Kedzikope and Dzelukope, Dzita, Anloga, Agbledomi, Atiteti, Agokedzi, Serakope Fuveme leaving them homeless and nothing to salvage.
Some roads within the communities have become impassable and nearly cut from one another.
Madam Abla Dzifa Gomashie, the MP for Ketu South,
who contributed to the statement, complained that the Sea Defence Project had been abandoned by the Government and any further delay to kick-start would lead to severe destruction of property.
She urged the Government to go beyond assurances to really work on the project to save lives and property.
Mr Kennedy Osei Nyarko, the MP for Akim Swedru, while sharing in the pain of the affected, condemned sand-winning activities that exacerbated the problem.
The Second Deputy Speaker, Mr Andrew Amoako Asiamah, referred the matter to the Committee of Works and Housing and urged the affected persons to remain calm as the Committee and sector Minister were working to resolve the problem.
Majority Chief Whip Frank Annoh-Dompreh later told journalists that the Government would not be partisan in addressing the disaster.
He expressed the Majority’s sympathy to the affected communities saying the disaster was a crisis, “which we all as a nation have to come together to deal with.”
He refuted claims that the Minister for Works and Housing had not visited the affected communities.
The first phase of the Sea Defence Project, also called the Blekuso Project, started in 2015 but was completed under the New Patriotic Party–led Administration in 2019, the Majority Chief Whip said.
He gave the assurance that the Majority would support any attempt, devoid of partisan politics, to complete the remnant of the eight-kilometre project,
He called on the ministries responsible to release the “necessary liquid” as soon as possible for the second-phase of the Blekuso Project to commence.
GNA