From Isaac Akwetey- Okunor, Suhum
Twin sisters aged four (4) of Abenabo, a farming community which is a few miles away from the Suhum Township have been crushed to death by a building that collapsed on them during a heavy downpour that greeted the Suhum Municipality of the Eastern region in the early hours of Friday.
The twins, who were sleeping in the same mud house with their mother and other siblings met their untimely death when the comparatively weakened clay house caved in during the storm and instantly killed them. They have since been deposited in the Suhum Government Hospital morgue.
Meanwhile, six (6) others, including a pregnant woman, who were in the relatively small mud house with visible cracks and signs of warning escaped death but sustained various degrees of injuries.
The injured occupants were in good condition and responding to treatment at the same hospital as at the time of filing this report.
Narrating the ordeal to the paper, the mother of the deceased twins’, Madam Akweley Madzi explained that the late children were sleeping with six (6) others when they met their untimely death.
Meanwhile, hundreds of residents in and around Suhum have been displaced after they had an encounter of ‘life and death’ with the fierce rain that visited them on that fateful day, with areas such as Suhum-Ayehkotse, the main lorry station and the market been the most affected.
Properties running into thousands of Ghana cedis were destroyed in the process when the bridge around the lorry station and market overflow its boundary and in the process submerged vehicles, buildings and stores.
Residents in the area have called on management of the Suhum Municipal Assembly and National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to assist them with some relief items, as well as financial support.
They have also appealed to the Assembly to clear the weeds that have overgrown the bridge which arguably led to the immeasurable destruction of properties in the area.
According to them, they lost all their belongings and until the Assembly and NADMO come to their aid, they have nothing to depend on at this moment.
Interestingly, it appears that the people of the area have not learnt lesson from this avoidable natural disaster since this is the third consecutive time the fierce rain has shook the foundation of the place.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the area Hon. Samuel Kwabi in an interview with a cross-section of the media, shortly after he had toured the affected areas and bereaved family, expressed worry why people continued to put up buildings on water ways.
He explained that the municipal NADMO officials and team of experts have accordingly accessed the extent of damaged and would immediately meet to put up measures on how to support the affected people.
About the bereaved family, he expressed his condolence to the family and promised the Assembly’s concerns and support for them.
Hon. Kwabi took advantage of the media briefing to advise and called on residents in the area to frown on putting up buildings on waterways, which according to him has been identified as major cause of flooding in the area.
According to him, mankind can cheat everybody but nature cannot be cheated, hence it would be prudent that people do the right thing at the right time and support the Assembly on clamping down on activities that would lead to disasters.
He was worried that, in the quest to turn Suhum municipality to one of the enviable Assemblies in the country, some individuals who were only interested in their gains have organized people against him.
To him, as far as he was doing the right thing within the confines of the constitution, he would not be bothered by what people say about him but rather what he can do for future generation to have a good living.
