Former President John Dramani Mahama has added his voice to the calls for a State of Emergency to be declared following the flooding of areas in the Volta region resulting from the spillage of water from the Akosombo and Kpong dams.
John Mahama in a post made on X, formerly Twitter Wednesday, October 18, 2023 said “it is clear that the scope and scale of the flooding of communities along the Volta River is bigger than our crippled economy can bear.”
According to him, declaring a State of Emergency in the affected areas and requesting assistance from Ghana’s bilateral and multilateral partners is the surest way to go.
A State of Emergency is declared when a disaster has occurred or may be imminent that is severe enough to require State aid to supplement local resources in preventing or alleviating damages, loss, hardship or suffering.
“I recommend to Government to declare a State of Emergency in the affected areas and request relief assistance from our bilateral and multilateral partners immediately,” Mahama’s statement on X indicated.
It is clear that the scope and scale of the flooding of communities along the Volta River is bigger than our crippled economy can bear.
I recommend to Government to declare a State of Emergency in the affected areas and request relief assistance from our bilateral and… pic.twitter.com/XGZxsvDWU5
— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) October 18, 2023
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John Mahama’s call follows an earlier one by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Assemblies of God Church which is also calling for a permanent solution to be sought amid the support for declaring a State of Emergency.
To be able to achieve that, the church says there was the need for workable engineering solutions to be sought, intensification of public education on disaster prevention and effective sanctions against perpetrators of environmental degradation.
Despite backing the calls for a state of emergency, it stressed that those solutions were required “if we decide, as a nation, to be serious in finding long-term answers to the flooding and other nagging environmental questions.”
Addressing the press at the church’s head office in Accra, the General Superintendent of the church, Rev. Dr Stephen Wengam, further called for the necessary legislative and humanitarian weight on current measures being undertaken to bring the depressing situation under control.
“In addition to prayers, rigid application of science and technology should play a frontal role in dealing with the risks to human lives and property in the flood-prone areas.
“We believe finding a permanent solution to the impact of flood waters, any time there’s a spillage of water from any of the dams in Ghana will be most welcome” Rev. Dr Wengam stressed.
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