Some children displaced in the areas affected by the floods from the spillage of the Akosombo Dam have reported issues of sexual harassment meted out to them, Executive Director of Child Rights International, Bright Appiah, has indicated.
He says some of these children who are teenagers have been placed at risk, some denied their privacy as a result of the resettlement of their families with others reporting cases of abuse.
After a visit to the affected areas, Mr. Appiah in a press presentation called for the prioritisation of the well-being of these young ones who are being abused as a result of their current condition.
“Some of them are teenagers, so definitely when they are done bathing, they want to change themselves and all that. So they think that their privacy has been denied as a result of that. Some are also reporting issues of sexual harassment.
“We even recorded almost about 0.62% of the children, who said they have in one way or the other been harassed in terms of sexual activities and all that. About 1% of them also complained that they had been verbally abused as a result of that,” he told Accra-based Citi News.
He has called on authorities to check the living conditions of the victims since it has become harmful to the well-being of the children.
Mr. Appiah said “when it comes to sleeping arrangements, some of them in the night even prefer to sleep in the corridors than to be in the room because of the way and manner things are done. Because there’s no special attention being paid to children.”
“Everything there is being computed for adults and that makes it very difficult for the children under these circumstances, even their protection rights are being denied,” he added.
The VRA began the controlled water spillage from the Akosombo and Kpong Dams on September 15, 2023, due to a consistent rise in the inflow pattern and water level of the Akosombo reservoir.
Thousands of residents in South Tongu, North Tongu, Central Tongu, Asuogyaman, and several other areas had their homes submerged due to the spillage including those along the Upper Volta Basin in the Bono East region.
