Teach swimming in schools – NADMO advocates as floods sweep 12 children in Ashanti region

The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) is advocating for the inclusion of swimming lessons in basic schools.

The organisation says this has become imperative  following the recent rising death tolls of children under 10 in floods.

According to Kwabena Nsenkyire, Ashanti Regional Director of NADMO, Twelve children have been swept away by floodwaters in the Ashanti region over the past one and a half months.

The latest is the drowning of a six-year old school girl at Moshie Zongo, a suburb of the Kumasi metropolis on Monday evening following a torrential downpour that lasted for 30 minutes.

The girl, according to Nsenkyire, “was on her way home from school, she was swept off her feet by floodwaters, resulting in a huge fall that landed her on a sharp metal, leaving a deep cut on her head; it is suspected that she died from the profuse bleeding”

“It is sad the way children are being swept away by floodwaters in the Ashanti region in recent times; as at this morning, twelve children have died in floods and it is high time we taught kids how to swim in school; it is very important that we take this step”, he said.

Kwabena Nsenkyire blamed the phenomenon largely on the “negligence of parents, especially fathers who care less about how and when their children get to school, leaving the responsibility of care entirely on mothers”.

Scores of residents in the Ashanti region have been displaced by the October torrential rains; some have died and properties running into several millions of Ghana Cedis have been lost.

The NADMO has cited logistical constraints as one of its weaknesses in addressing the perennial challenges with flooding in the Ashanti region.

Kwabena Nsenkyire has said his outfit needs an excavator to desilt and widen some gutters and storm drains in the Ashanti region to abate the floods.