Video: Homes Buried In Spillage

Houses are completely submerged following the spillage of the Akosombo Dam to drain out excess water. As latest footage reveals, residential compounds are unhabitable. If there is anything at all left for the distressed to latch onto, it is the remote possibility of sitting on top of their roofs and remaining marooned.

It is a dire situation facing those affected by the water spillage, as their only safety valve is complete evacuation. It is only fair and logical to conclude that those who escaped the flooding might not have salvaged all their personal effects before their dives for cover.

This is a major humanitarian crisis, and the territory bearing the brunt most is the Volta region. It is reported that electricity to affected towns has been cut, and this holds other unpalatable consequences.

It remains to be seen how emergency workers would react in the circumstances, in the risky adventure to rescue people, or hold their breath and count the losses after the long wait for the tide to subside.

Ground surface water is not unfamiliar in this coastal region. The region is host to a larger proportion of the Volta Lake that straddles four or five of Ghana’s
16 administrative regions. What is unfamiliar, perhaps few and far between is for water to build up all the way to the doorsteps of the inhabitants.

Vocationers like fishermen have no other choice than to add their voices to the distress call. That seems a luxury for it is the better alternative to the other situation likely to mute victims’ should drowning gain the upper hand in this seesaw.