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Religious in Ghana Express Solidarity with Victims of Flooding from Dam Spillage

Credit: Catholic Trends

The Conference of Major Superiors of Religious - Ghana (CMSR-Gh) has expressed "solidarity and proximity" with victims of the Akosombo Dam Spillage flood. 

At least 31,000 people in nine districts within Ghana's Volta region have been displaced by floods triggered by spillage from Akosombo Dam, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has said. The Volta River Authority started the spillage exercise  on September 15 to reduce the dam’s high water levels.

In a statement signed by CMSR-Gh President, Fr. Paul Ennin, SMA, the women and men religious, express “solidarity and proximity with all the victims of this unfortunate disaster.”

“We are wholeheartedly with you in spirit and praying for strength and resilience for you and your families in this difficult time of tragic displacement, discomfort and loss of property,” they say in the statement shared with ACI Africa Thursday, October 26.

The men and women religious said the fact that the spillage exercise caused a disaster of high magnitude “is a wake up call for us.”

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“If a man-made disaster which could have been planned better has caught us unprepared, how responsive would we be in the face of a natural disaster of higher magnitude?” they ask.

They add, “Is it the question that we have becomes so used to perennial spillage and consequent flooding of homes and farmlands from the Burge and Waija dams that the untold suffering of the people are taken for grant”

CMSR-Gh members say previous and present governments in the West African nation ”seem to pay lip service to doing anything to perpetually resolve the problem.”

There have been controlled spillages at the Akosombo dam in previous years, 2010 being the latest.

CMSR-Gh members call on the government and all state agencies to come up with remedies to prevent the future occurrence of similar disasters ”as a matter of urgency.”

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On October 20, Catholic Bishops in Ghana donated 100,000 cedis (8,445.95 USD) to victims of the floods.

Members of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCBC) also appealed for support to aid those affected by the floods. 

“All relief items should be channeled through the National Catholic Secretariat to ensure a well-coordinated approach and to see to it that help is given to the most vulnerable. The relief items should reach the NCD latest by the end of November,” GCBC President, Bishop Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi says in a statement.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.