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The Bulk Oil and Transportation Company (BOST) Limited has donated some relief items with an estimated cost of GH100,000 to victims of the Akosombo Dam Spillage.

The donation which forms part of the corporate social responsibility of BOST for the victims across nine (9) districts affected by the recent dam spillage was presented last Friday, December 8, 2023, to the North Tongu District Assembly, serving as the national operations centre for the collection and distribution of relief items.

The General Manager, Corporate Communications and External Affairs of BOST, Mr Marlick Adjei leading the delegation to present the relief items said that the company owed it a duty to come to the aid of the victims, especially in their current time of need.

He noted that the relief items, made up of 170 bags of 25-kilogram rice, 70 boxes of cooking oil and two thousand bags of sachet water were carefully selected to meet the pressing needs of the victims.

“We carefully selected these items because we do know very well that the waters flooded homes, refuse dumps, cemeteries, and others. About 90 per cent of their sources of water have been polluted, and if we leave them, the real disaster is yet to begin.

When your house is flooded, you can run with your life, but when you come back and you don’t get good water to drink, you end up poisoning yourself in that same house, and you die. That’s why we are bringing water.”

He explained that the food items were added because “we are nearing the festive season, farmers have their farms submerged, shops are submerged and it’s like nothing is virtually working in this part of the country anymore. How do they survive?

We are giving them these food items to at least keep them alive so they can think through their lives and work towards getting them back. This is the rationale of our interaction, engagement and this donation with the promise to do even more.”

Mr Adjei reiterated the need to expedite efforts in resettling the affected victims and thus called on all Ghanaians including corporate and faith-based organisations to join the efforts in alleviating the plight of the affected victims.

“Let the churches come in; this is not the time for Bible quotations. It is a good time for hand-in-pocket donations so that they can also live their normal lives going forward, and it is also time for Town and Country Planning to take the special planning of this country seriously.

Much as there are genuine disaster issues, there are some houses when you look at the places they were allowed to be built; you can see people conspired to kill people at a point in the future.”

The District Chief Executive for North Tongu, Mr Osborn Divine Fenu receiving the items, expressed gratitude to BOST for the gesture and extended a call to other entities and individuals to come to the aid of the flood victims.

“On behalf of the disaster management committee, I want to thank BOST for coming to the aid. Indeed, you are augmenting the number of challenges we are going through. So we want to thank you and also call on other state agencies, corporate Ghana and individuals to also come and support us because we are in the process of resettling our people and that demands a lot of resources, he pleaded.

The Queen Mother of Mepe Traditional Area, Mamaga Adzo Sreku IV, reiterated the need for more support, especially in the area of resettlement for the victims impacted by the flood.

We appreciate you for coming. Please put the word out there for us. We need that a lot, especially the resettlement part. People need to get their lives back; people need to get their dignity back”, she said.

The gesture by BOST comes on the back of a recent donation of assorted items to flood victims at Buipe in the Central Gonja District of the Savannah Region.

The spillage of excess water by the Volta River Authority (VRA) has had a devastating impact on thousands of residents along the Volta Lake, including the loss of livelihoods, places of abode, and education in the affected areas.