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General News of Thursday, 21 July 2011

Source: GNA

Three die in Atiwa floods

Kwabeng, July 21, GNA - Three people were discovered dead, one each at Akrofufu, Muoso and Ankaase in flood waters in the Atiwa District.

One person was reported missing and more than 25,000 displaced as a result of the flood that hit Anyinam and other communities in the District on Monday.

The dead had been identified as Kwabena Daniel, 42, a goldsmith from Akyem Akrofufu, Kwame Donkor, 50, a farmer, from Akyem Muoso and Kofi Twum from Ankaase who attempted to swim cross River Sea and drowned in the process.

This came to light when Mr Kwasi Amoako Atta, Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, visited some of the affected communities and the bereaved families on Wednesday.

A heavy downpour in the early hours of Monday caused the River Sea in the area to overflow its banks.

It consequently flooded other streams and rivers such as River Birim leading to massive flooding of houses at Anyinam, Asamang Tamfoe, Osoroase, Jejeti Akwaboase, and Asunafo all in the District, as well as farmlands in other communities around the river.

A visit to the area indicated that three communities such as Akwaboso, Abomosu and Muoso had been cut off from the rest of the country, as flood waters had blocked access roads leading to those areas, compelling some young men to use canoe to convey people from one end to another, charging GHC5 per person.

Mr Amoako Atta in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) expressed shock at the disaster in the area, and blamed it at the door steps of illegal miners popularly known as galamsey operators, who had diverted the course of most river water bodies that hitherto flowed directly into the main Birim River.

Meanwhile the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Atiwa, Mr Emmanuel Atta- Twum, accompanied by the District NADMO Co-coordinator, Mr Kofi Danso, visited Osoroase and other communities on Tuesday to assess the extent of damage caused by the floods.

He told the GNA that he had appealed for assistance for the affected communities as some houses had collapsed and about 109 farmers left stranded on their farms. Mr Atta Twum said NADMO officials had sent relief items including rice, used clothes and polymaths to the farmers and other affected people, while arrangements were being made for them to be sheltered in a church at Osoroase.