NADMO in GHS186m debt, international donors fed up

NADMO has lamented that it will not be able to help in case of a disaster this rainy season because of crippling debt while international humanitarian agencies are reportedly fed up and frustrated with Ghana’s inability to deal with perennial flooding, especially in the capital Accra.

Officials from these agencies spoke on Joy Midday News.

The Red Cross Society of Ghana, which received more than ninety per cent of its funding from international organisations and nations, has said it is becoming difficult to get help because the country makes the same demands every year.

In the final edition on the weekly series on flooding, Manasseh Azure Awuni set out to find out how prepared the humanitarian agencies are as the rainy season sets in.

He spoke to Kofi Porturphy, National Coordinator, (NADMO) who lamented on its weak capacity in dealing with any potential disaster.

He said: "We are in debt amounting to GHS186m. In the last four months to the end of the year, nobody gave us a pesewa. Go to Finance (Ministry) and find if they have given us one pesewa to buy petrol. My people in the regions and districts, you can contact them. Nobody has anything. Our warehouses are empty".

The Secretary-General of Ghana Red Cross Society, Samuel Kofi Addo, has also said their stores are empty. He revealed that international donors were becoming increasingly reluctant to offer assistance.

"What makes it worse is that it becomes perennial. Every year you have to make the same request and the question that comes (from international donor agencies) is that why don't you have a permanent solution to it," he said.

The Ghana Meteorological Agency has also predicted that the nation will record more rainfall than last year.

Kafui Quarshigah, Principal Meteorological Officer said: "This year will be better than last year. We will have more. But the months are going to be short."

He, however, added that the amounts of rainfall recorded are not singularly responsible for the floods.

"For the floods that we normally experience in Accra, we look at it and say it is a man-made flood. It is created by you and I. As the drains are choked, the water comes and has nowhere to go," he explained.

In a related development, authorities of the Greater Accra Coordinating Council are meeting stakeholders to decide on best ways of prevent flooding in the capital, as the rains set in.

Regional Minister Julius Debrah has told JOYNEWS of plans to undertake a regional clean up exercise.

It is instructive to note that the motto of NADMO is "Prevention pays".