By Emmanuel Gamson
Takoradi, May 16, GNA – The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan office of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has started a sensitisation campaign to educate residents on best practices to ensure their safety ahead of the rainy season.
The education, which targeted those in flood-prone communities within the Metropolis, was to equip them with the necessary knowledge on measures to ensure their safety in the event of floods during heavy downpours.
Madam Emma Akosua Adu-Boafo, an Officer at the Manpower and Social Mobilisations Department, Sekondi-Takoradi NADMO, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the move formed part of the organisation’s response preparedness to equip residents with strategies for risk reduction, and build their resilience against incidence of flood in the Metropolis.
She said: “We are visiting marketplaces, beaches, radio stations, and other vantage areas to educate residents as part of our planned activities to help reduce the impact of disasters associated with floods within our Metropolis”.
She urged the people to take charge of their safety and ensure they kept their surroundings clean, to prevent waste materials from getting into water paths leading to floods.
Madam Adu-Boafo asked them to move to safe havens like schools, churches, other identifiable safe spaces to protect their lives in the event of heavy downpours.
“What we are saying is that they should not walk in floodwater and also ensure that they do not take anything along when they are moving from a flooded area to a safer place,” she added.
Meanwhile, as part of planned activities to prevent hazards and other disasters in the Metropolis, NADMO had since 2019 earmarked some 95 weak and dilapidated structures for demolition.
Madam Adu-Boafo said the NADMO assessment revealed that those buildings posed danger, hence the need to clear them, to ensure safety for both occupants and residents.
She said so far, nine out of 16 of these structures which fell under the first phase of the demolition exercise had been successfully completed.
The rest of the exercise would be carried out in due course, she added.
GNA
MSM/CAA