Toilet Disaster Kills, Injures Many

An undisclosed number of people are feared dead in a communal toilet accident at Kasoa on the Bawjiase road last Saturday. The 12�seater toilet facility caved at about 5.30am, a peak time for the facility, when it is common to see long queues of people waiting for their turn to attend to nature�s call. One of the first fatalities to be confirmed was that of a 54-year-old driver, Mr Raphael Kojo Amaquandoh. Ghana Fire Service was at the scene to retrieve the bodies of the dead, who were said to have drowned in the toilet, which is located close to the traffic light on the Bawjiase road. An eye-witness account at the time of going to press indicated that the Fire Service personnel had pulled some bodies out of the pit while efforts were being made to retrieve the rest. When The Finder got to the scene of the disaster at about 7.30am, the police had cordoned off the site while officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) of the Awutu Senya District Assembly had already commenced its rescue mission. One officer told The Finder that they had successfully fetched some victims of the disaster to the nearest medical facility for attention. �On our arrival at the scene, we got inside there and were able to rescue five persons, one woman and four men,� he said. According to him, one of the four men sustained severe injuries and had to be referred to the Winneba Government Hospital while the rest remained on admission at the Kasoa Health Centre. He told this reporter that his outfit strongly suspected that there were a lot more people trapped beneath the rubble and had sent for an excavator. �We exercise a lot of caution so instead of going down there, we have requested the services of an excavator in order to get access to those trapped down there,� he said. The excavator on arrival manoeuvred its way to the disaster site with much difficulty as onlookers made it difficult for it to pass through. As officers of the Ghana Fire Service were called in to assist, large boulders and debris laced with thick human excreta were brought out as the search for survivors continued. About an hour later a body was pulled out and was later identified as that of Mr Raphael Amaquandoh. The crime officer for the Kasoa District of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Moses Naa-Kolgo, confirmed the identity of the deceased. �We still have one person on admission but the rest have been treated and discharged,� he added. The Finder�s own investigations revealed that the toilet facility was more than 20 years old. Some residents told this reporter that the area was given to flooding during heavy downpours.