President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has praised people, organisations, and businesses in Ghana for their efforts to provide aid to villages that have been inundated as a result of the excess water spilling from the Akosombo Dam.
Numerous private organisations, people, and governmental agencies banded together to offer assistance to towns downstream that were impacted by the exceptional floods that caused property damage and investment, causing unimaginable suffering for the populace, particularly in the hardest-hit Tongu areas.
The President called the cooperative efforts the “best of the Ghanaian spirit on display” while speaking at the 61st Hogbetsotsoza, the customary celebration of the chiefs and people of Anlo, in Anloga.
Among those who contributed to reducing the disaster’s impact on the populace were engineers, medical professionals, members of civic society, corporations, the military, and journalists.
“The Inter-Ministerial Committee, which I formed… The Health Service, the Military and the Police have all been working together to resolve the crisis, President Akufo-Addo said
“I know that we do not often think of the possibility of the structures of government working together but we should.”
“I pay homage to the many private sector and ordinary citizens, who made donations and offers of help in various ways”
While the majority of journalists reported on the flooding situation to give it prominence, a few did not scrutinise their facts, which led to misinforming, he said.
One of such was about an outbreak of bilharzia, which took the Health Service to debunk.
The President, therefore, admonished journalists to uphold the principles of their profession to better serve society.
He commended the Queenmother of Mepe in North Tongu, Mamaga Adzo Srako IV, for bravely defending his “innocent comments” during his visit to the area.
This year’s festival was on the theme: “Climate Change, a Challenge to Lands below Sea Level, a Concern of the Anto State and the Stakeholders”.
It recognised the efforts of some engineers and citizens of Anla including the three municipal and district chief executives along the Anlo coast in draining the over-flooded Keta Lagoon into the sea by opening the sandbar separating the lagoon and the sea.
