Search for ten (10) year old girl swept away by floodwaters in Koforidua after a heavy downpour on Tuesday afternoon has entered day two.
The search team made up of Police, NADMO, and residents led by the Assembly Member for the area Benard Acheampong are still on the grounds searching for the girl in the Nsukwao storm drain.
The victim, Nafisah Mumuni a class three (3) pupil of King of Kings Preparatory school allegedly drowned while crossing the drainage facility with her elder sister to the house after closing from school.
School Authorities declined to speak on the incident during a visit on Wednesday morning.
The family of the victim had however gathered in anxiety at the family house. The mother of the victim was being consoled in a room as she was heartbroken.
The auntie of the victim Fatimatu Ismaila narrated that, “around 2:00pm after the rains, and one of my brother’s called the mother and asked her whether the kids have returned home after school, but responded that the kids haven’t returned yet, that was when my brother revealed that he some students have drowned in one of the gutters in the community. So she got terrified and decided to go to the scene and verify it herself, fortunately for her, she met some of the daughter’s colleague students on the way so she asked them the whereabouts of her kids, but they told her that they’ve not seen them maybe they have gone to where her sister dwells.
She continued “upon hearing that from the students she went straight to the sister’s house but when she got there she didn’t see any kids sandals in front of the door so she began to suspect what the situation mighty be.
Suddenly whiles she was in the house, she had a call to board Okada to come to the place where her child got drowned, so she was hoping to get there to at least see her child alive so that she can be taken to the hospital but when she got there she was told that the rains had already carried her child away”
She said, “since yesterday we have not slept, we are in a state of sadness because of the incident which has occurred”.
The Eastern Regional Director of Operations for NADMO Alfred Owiredu Agyemang said the search was ongoing.
“We had a call from our director for New Juaben south municipality, we received a report indicating that two children have fallen into the Nsukwao river as a result of the rains which fell yesterday, so we dispatched a team to where the incident happened around Musco but when we got there we were informed that they were two children a boy and a girl that is a brother and a sister but the boy was rescued, so it was the boy, the one who was rescued told the people around that the sister also got drowned. From yesterday we asked our zonal directors to comb around the banks of the Nsukwao, so actually, that is what we have been doing till this morning so that they will be able to locate the alleged drowned girl”.
Floods in Koforidua
The Koforidua -Sentimental area in New Juaben South Municipality in Eastern Region was seriously flooded after a downpour on Tuesday afternoon.
The Sentimental area used to experience such devastating flooding whenever there was torrential rainfall but the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly was confident the newly constructed Nsukwao Basin Drainage project has fixed the flood problems in the area.
However, Tuesday’s downpour seems to have exposed this claim.
Many shops, homes were flooded after the floodwaters in the drainage overflew its bank. The main road was also flooded which made it difficult for motorists and pedestrians to cross.
Many parts of Koforidua continue to experience similar floods for the past two months leading to the loss of properties and displacement of occupants of homes and shops.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on August 4, 2020, cut sod for the construction of the GH¢15,811,145.00 Nsukwao Basin Drainage Project, in Koforidua under the Ghana Secondary Cities Support Programme (GSCSP) of the World Bank to mitigate the perennial flooding situation in the Municipality.
The project included the installation of four (4) storm water surface detention ponds distributed along the Nsukwao River, flow facilities, channelization, and stream bank stabilization, concrete pipes and culverts, and two access roads.
However, residents in New Juaben are questioning the quality of work done on the completed project hence calling on the World Bank and President Akufo Addo to investigate.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
