Just four days after a flood submerged over 60 homes at Nyamekrom, a community in the New Juaben South Municipality that saw the road leading to the community and beyond cut off, a torrential rainstorm that occurred at 2:40am Saturday dawn has flooded the community again with more houses affected.
The heavy rain that fell on the dawn of Saturday, October 23, 2021, in Koforidua has aggravated the seemingly unending flooding situation in parts of Koforidua including Nyamekrom.
There is currently a total halt on movement to and from Nyamekrom as the main road connecting the community to other parts of Koforidua and beyond has been split by the heavy flood.
Meanwhile, the rains do not seem to stop any moment yet as it has been raining almost every day in the New Juaben South Municipality for the past two weeks.
At the time of filing this report, it was still raining in Koforidua amidst a windstorm.
If the situation remains as it is, schools in Nyamekrom may not be operational next week since most of the teachers and pupils in the basic schools there commute from Old Estates, KwameDjan Krom, St. James, and other distant communities to school at Nyamekrom.
The temporal bridge that was fixed by the community members, led by the Assembly Member for Nyamekrom, has been swept away by the raging flood after the Saturday downpour.
Some of the affected residents of Nyamekrom shared their worries and appeals to GhanaWeb, with one of them, Philip Asare Mensah, explaining that “the problem is not just Nyamekrom here. When you take a critical look at the situation, there are drains flowing from Asokore, Effiduase, Abrewa Nkwanta, all those drains pass through the bush and just come to settle at Nyamekrom.”
“So we need to trace where all these drains come from so that we can have a solution to the problem. It is about three weeks now, no solution. The road that our drivers pass on has become a death trap. So the government must act fast because what is going on here is very serious," he said.
“We are in a critical condition and we are pleading with the government to come and do something about it” Philip Mensah appealed.
GhanaWeb gathered that a nursing mother who gave birth just two days ago had all her belongings including dresses she bought for her baby before delivery swept away by the flood.
To add salt to injury, the flood has ejected her from her place of abode as she is currently perching with neighbours.
A taxi driver who plies the Koforidua-Nyamekrom road described the situation as a life-threatening one and urged that authorities must take urgent action to employ appropriate engineering to ameliorate the situation.
Flooding in the New Juaben South Municipality has been heightening in recent days in a number of places including Zongo, Ada, Magazine, and Nsukwao at a time when residents thought the construction of the Nsukwao Basin which was started by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in August 2020 could solve the flooding problem.
The Nsukwao Basin Drainage Project, which is under the Ghana Secondary Cities Support Programme (GSCSP), was meant to help stop the perennial flooding faced by residents living in Nsukwao, Zongo, Two Streams, Abongri, and other communities within the New Juaben Municipality. However, it seems the flooding is getting worse.
Last week, two children were carried away by the flooding that occurred at Anlo Town in the same Municipality. One of them was retrieved alive while the other one, a 10-year-old, is still not found.
Meanwhile, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for New Juaben South, Isaac Appaw-Gyasi, thinks otherwise.
In an interview with GhanaWeb, he indicated that the Nsukwao Basin actually has no direct link or correlation to the current flooding at Nyamekrom.
He said but for the construction of the Nsukwao Basin, the present flooding situation in the Municipality would have been out of total control, and that more lives and properties would have been lost considering the kind of rains being experienced currently.
“We have found out that there are some challenges (and) we have drawn the attention of the consultant. So, it is going to be rectified. For the kind of rains we are experiencing now, the whole country, so many places have flooded, and I don’t think Koforidua is an exception.
“It is unfortunate. We are not giving up, we are still going to work very hard so that we can reduce the pain that so many people are experiencing in their homes.
“Nyamekrom is also experiencing the same (flooding challenge) and it has been going on for so many years now. What we are trying to do is to build a culvert, 4 by 4 inch, very big one, so the waters from the other side can pass through and reduce the pressure that goes on over there.
“At the moment the indigenes have been very affected by the rains and we are talking to the contractor who is on the site… we are counting on them to expedite the process so that the contractor can come and complete it for us. The people are really suffering.
“We are fixing the problem squarely on. It is just that the rains keep on coming on a daily basis here in Koforidua. I can tell you without equivocation that but for the construction of the Nsukwao, we would have been in a horrible situation. So it is not correct that the Nsukwao Basin has created more problems than it used to be,” the MCE explained as he consoled the affected residents.
