By Godfred A. Polkuu
Bongo (U/E), March 13, GNA – Mr Charles Bawa-Dua, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bongo Constituency in the Upper East Region, has visited schools and health facilities affected by windstorm in the area.
A heavy windstorm on Monday ripped up roofs of basic schools and portions of health facilities and brought down electricity poles and cables in several communities across the Constituency.
The affected schools included the Awaah Primary, Dua Yikene, Anafobiisi Primary ‘B’, the Lembiisi Moshie Dabooro, Kantia, Tankoo Primary and Junior High Schools (JHSs).
The rest are the Saint Augustine, Father Lebel, Beo Nayikura, the Adaboya Tindomboko Kindergarten and JHSs, including the Beo Health Centre.
Roofs of some school lavatories and kitchen, staff accommodation for health professionals were equally not spared in the storm, with most of the affected communities plunged into darkness owing to broken electricity poles and cables.
The MP, who toured the affected areas to ascertain the extent of damage, also visited a pupil who sustained head inquiry because of the storm.
In an interview with journalists after the tour, Mr Bawa-Dua said “The story is even more serious than we thought. In some schools, the roofs are completely removed, zincs destroyed. Nothing can be salvaged from that.
“It is a terrible situation. When I heard this, I didn’t think it was this much, and government certainly must come in to get this sorted out as quickly as possible,” he said.
He said the situation in the schools would affect contact hours, as pupils would have no classrooms for studies, noting that the distraction needed urgent attention.
“Apart from public structures, almost every household is adversely touched by the storm. Not even electricity poles were spared the wrath of the storm. For some communities, they may not have lights in the immediate future,” he said.
The MP called for support from institutions with the ability to renovate and re-roof the structures, and replace the lost logistics, especially teaching and learning materials in the affected schools for academic activities to immediately resume.
He also called on the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) to take immediate steps to restore electricity to the affected communities.
Mr Bawa-Dua emphasized that his Office would do its bit to fix the problem and solicited support from organizations including the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to restore normal life to the affected communities.
Mr John Ankoh, the Bongo District Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), who accompanied the MP on the tour, said management of the Service had made temporal arrangements to have some pupils sit under trees and others in nearby churches.
He said marker boards and markers would be procured in the temporal structures for teaching and learning to continue, “We don’t want to break teaching and learning, and so that is the current arrangement we have put in place to ensure that teaching and learning continues for the children.”
Mr Ankoh hoped the MP would assist to remedy the situation as soon as possible for normal curricular activities to resume.
GNA