Disaster Committee Tour Landslide Hit Areas

Abotia (E/R), Aug 21, - A team from the Sub-Committee of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), today toured the landslide-hit areas of Abotia, a village at the foot of the Akromgbo Hills in the Yilo Krobo District. The tour followed a newspaper report and representations to the coordinator of NADMO about a landslide which occurred in the area last June. The village has a cluster of farming settlements, with a population of about 120. Briefing the team at the village, Nokotorma Tetteh Okley, a victim of the landslide, said there was a loud rumbling from the hills following a downpour. ''That was when we discovered that the area had been flooded and that the flood waters had risen close to seven feet. At the same time, huge boulders were rolling down the hillside towards the village''. He told the team that all his 40 sheep, the same number of goats and more than 50 fowls were swept away by the flood waters. ''Fortunately, my wife and children were away with my in-laws. I managed to run away from my room before a boulder knocked down the house.'' He said there were three other houses in the settlement which were destroyed. ''I have lost everything - money, clothes, utensils, farm implements and all". Dr A. Ofori-Quaah, Chairman of the sub-committee and leader of the team, said geologically, what happened to the Akromgbo/Abotia community is something that threatens many communities in that area and many other parts of the country. ''Unfortunately, each one of these tragic events results from careless human activities. ''Before this unusually heavy rain, someone cleared the slopes and planted cassava along them, thus leaving the loose top soil badly exposed''. The team recommended that Nokotorma Okley and the other victims be resettled with a quantity of roofing sheets and some bags of cement to rebuild their houses at a bigger and safer settlement of Abotia. As the effects of erosion are already showing in Abotia and several of the nearby settlements, the committee advised the people to guard against over-exposure of their buildings by planting grass around their houses. It further recommended that the path created by the landslide be covered with trees through a conscious tree planting programme. ''Additionally, all farming activities along the slopes of the hills in the area must cease forthwith because it is the clearing of the weeds and felling of trees in preparation for farming that exposed the slopes for the near disaster''.