Heavy Floods In Atiwa District - Farmers stranded For Three Days

About 10 hours of torrential rain has left 105 farmers stranded on their farms at Akyem Osoroase Krobomu in the Atiwa District in the Eastern Region since Monday.

The rain, which caused the River Sea in the area to overflow its banks, flooded other streams and rivers such as the River Birim.

The flood waters also blocked access roads, including the Anyinam-Nkawkaw portion of the Accra-Kumasi highway.

In the process, many passengers got stranded, except those in a few buses which braved the odds to drive through the flood waters.

Following the flooding of the River Sea, the stranded farmers spent Monday night on their farms and had to light fires to keep themselves warm in the cold night.

The Atiwa District Office of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has been making arrangements to use boats and canoes to ferry the stranded farmers to safe grounds.

Farmers from Akyem Asunafo had gone to their farms four miles away at Osoroase on Monday to collect foodstuffs for the Ohum Festival which was coming off the following day. But they could not return home because of the heavy downpour which had started about 11 p.m. on Sunday and continued until Monday.

When the farmers were returning home, they realised that the river had completely overflowed its banks, inundating the road and making it impossible for them to cross over.

Three of the farmers attempted to swim across but, in the process, one of them, identified as Kofi Twum, is suspected to have drowned.

The Atiwa District NADMO Office has sent relief items, including rice, used clothes and polymats, to the farmers, while arrangements are being made for them to put up in a church at Osoroase.

They are likely to spend three more days on their farms before they can be evacuated to their destinations.

The Atiwa District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Emmanuel Atta Twum, accompanied by the District NADMO Co-ordinator, Nana Danso, has visited Osoroase and its surrounding communities, such as Asamang Tamfoe, Akyem Mampong, Akrosua, Kwabeng and New Jejeti, to assess the extent of damage caused by the floods.

“Currently, the only means to reach and rescue these farmers is through the use of boats and helicopters,” Mr Atta Twum said.

He, therefore, appealed for assistance from the Ghana Armed Forces and NADMO to facilitate the rescue operation.

The DCE indicated that the floods had submerged the link routes between Akwaboso and Abomosu, compelling some individuals using canoes to charge GH¢5 to convey people from one bank of the river to the other.

Nana Danso blamed the unprecedented flooding in the area on the activities of illegal miners who had diverted the course of most water bodies that flowed directly into the River Birim.