The Ho Municipality’s residents are dealing with major losses as a result of yesterday’s flooding, which happened after a nonstop three-hour downpour.
Residents and store owners who were impacted were seen cleaning their houses and washing their damaged items this morning.
The unanticipated downpour wrecked havoc on local businesses, damaging stores and flooding several homes. Some streets were temporarily turned into waterways, obstructing traffic and upsetting everyday routines.
The damaging rainfall’s aftereffects were left for the community to deal with. While store owners were busy washing and sanitising their damaged items, some were seen this morning fetching water from their houses.
Some locals who voiced their worries emphasised that the regrettable circumstance would have been avoided if the appropriate building licences had been obtained to control developments near waterways.
“Just recently, I saw a man dumping refuse here, so I asked him to stop, because when it rains, the refuse will fly and enter the house. He quickly told me that the place is for him and that his land ends over there. He told me to go to the council, but I told him he had built on a drainage and when it rains, it will affect him. He refused, so I left,” they complained
Residents of the Volta Regional Capital, Ho, who have recently been inundated, fear that even worse effects may lie on the horizon if preventative actions are not taken.
In order to accommodate the municipality’s expanding population, some other impacted people are requesting that officials attend to the renovation of lesser bridges into much larger ones.
However, a comprehensive investigation into the flooding disaster has been launched by the Ho Municipal Assembly and the National Disaster Management Organisation.
Ho Municipal Chief Executive Divine Boson said during an interview with Citi News that buildings near rivers would be torn down as a required precaution.
“Some of the causes are man-made, which we can stop. If we can’t stop them, at least we can mitigate the effects. When you don’t put debris or sachet water on waterways, it will not choke the gutters. Those are the responsibilities of my environmental health officers. They should go round and punish those people who are going against the by-laws of the assembly. We cannot be doing what we have been doing all this while and be getting the same results. Those who have also built on waterways and those who are building, from tomorrow, action will start. We will not allow anybody to compromise anybody. Anything that needs to be done should be done well,” he said.
