2,000 people affected in Koforidua floods

Two person lost their lives from floods that hit Koforidua and its environs on Sunday after heavy rains.

The two were among the more than 2,000 people who were affected by the floods.

This is the second time in September where the rains have caused floods resulting in the lost of properties including household items and shops.

The rains which cause huge devastations to homes mostly along the stretch of the river-Nsukwao, including the Koforidua Old estate, Nkubem, Kenkey Factory, Abrewa-Nkwanta along the Koforidua-Polytechnic highway.

It also created potholes on almost all the roads in the Municipality.

Houses at the Nkumbem and Nsukwao areas around the SDA Hospital were submerged in the floods for more than four hours, preventing people from crossing over from the central part through the Old Estate and Effiduase and its environs.

When a team of the New Juaben Municipal Security Council visited the affected places to assess the situation, the residents were trying to salvage some household items destroyed the floods.

At some places personal effects including clothing were hanged on dry lines and every open space in an attempt to save the few good few ones.

The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Kwabena Okyere-Kusi, expressed the need for citizens to participate in the national sanitation exercise to ensure that drains are desilted to prevent the perennial floods.

He said a seven-member committee had been formed to critically assess the situation by identifying houses on waterways and other factors that contribute to the floods for the appropriate action to be taken.

The Committee would submit a report on September 30.

He said the expansion of the drainage system through the communities dotted along the Nsukwao River had been identified and would be captured in the 2017 plan of action to prevent an occurrence by the next rainy season.

Source: GNA