Winneba (C/R) Nov.10, GNA-Effutu Municipal Directorate of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) has called for clear demarcations for small and storm drains to forestall future flood disasters in the Municipality.
Mr. Samuel Annobil Baidoo, Effutu Municipal NADMO Director who made the call stressed the need for Effutu to have a master drainage system plan that must be pursued aggressively in the next five years.
He was speaking at a stakeholder’s forum to commemorate the 2019 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, held at Winneba on the theme; “Reduce Disaster Damage to Critical Infrastructure and Disruption of Basic Services”
The Day is commemorated to assess how people and communities around the world reduce their exposure to disaster and raise awareness about the importance of adopting safe, preventive and practicable measures against disasters
Mr. Baidoo indicated that “disasters are inevitable but how we prepare and prevent what we can, is very critical”, adding that, it was sad that the Winneba Township continued to experience flooding whenever there was a downpour due to sand winning and other bad environmental practices.
“NADMO Effutu is urging stakeholders in the municipality to combine their resources together as a matter of urgency to curb the indiscriminate sale of lands for all forms of use especially for sand winning activities which is destroying the lands”.
He called for review of sand winning activities in the area and added that the recent rains had exposed the negative impact of sand winning activities in the rural communities.
“Prevention pays, so let us come together to put resilient measures in place to prevent manmade disasters and mitigate the impact of natural disasters as and when they occur” he said and called for behavioural change towards the environment to curb disasters.
Mr. Moses Okine, Deputy Director in charge of Human Resources Management and Development of the Effutu Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service said the state of some school structures in the municipality was a recipe for disaster.
Some of the schools he referred to were – A.M.E. Zion A.B.C. Junior High School, A.M.E. Zion C. Primary, Municipal Assembly (M/A) Primary, Methodists A/B and C/D Primary and Inclusive and A/B JHS with dilapidated structures, which needed re-roofing and other renovation works due to severe leakages.
He recommended the need for Assemblies to spend money on Public School Buildings to bring them up to good conditions.
Other panel members from the Ghana Fire Service, Ghana Ambulance Service and Effutu Municipal Assembly also talked about how to prevent manmade disasters and protect the environment.